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ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION 



ON THE FIRING LINE 
IN EDUCATION 



BY 

A. J. LADD 

Professor of Education, State University of North Dakota 




BOSTON 

RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 



COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY RlCHARD G. BADGER 



All Rights Reserved 



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Made in the United States of America 



The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 



©CI.A529372 



PREFACE 



OF the ten studies making up this little volume 
only one, the last, aside from the Introduction, 
was designed primarily for publication. Each of 
the others had a definite personal audience in mind 
while being prepared. Still, nearly all have later 
found their way into print, and some have been re- 
printed in other periodicals and quoted quite ex- 
tensively in still others. Many letters of apprecia- 
tion, too, from strangers who have chanced to read 
this address or that, have come to the writer. These 
facts, together with expressions of appreciation 
upon delivery and with definite suggestions from 
many for publication, have finally led the writer to 
feel that possibly their gathering together might be 
worth while. But in fairness to himself, as well as 
to others, also in the interests of accuracy, he is 
prompted to give an additional reason for venturing 
upon the hazardous undertaking of offering "cold 
meats" to people not overly hungry. Not words of 
praise alone, no matter how warm, would justify 
such a decision, for one can never take such expres- 
sions at quite their face value — 'tis so easy to make 
pleasant remarks ! So the matter was thrown back 
to where it belonged all the time— upon the writer 
to decide the case on the merits of the various dis- 
cussions as dealing with present-day educational 
problems. 



6 On the Firing Line in Education 

While separate addresses, upon different topics, 
given at different times, and with no thought of con- 
nection, they all do bear upon one great matter of 
universal interest — that of education. The title, 
"On the Firing Line in Education," belongs specifi- 
cally to but the first of the topics discust. Still, 
it is appropriate to the entire group since the vari- 
ous matters handled are fundamental and the posi- 
tions taken considerably in advance of common use. 
But we are clearly moving in the general direction 
indicated — 'twill not be long now before the main 
army has caught up, and then the firing line will be 
still further advanced. 

I have a very definite conviction that, at any finan- 
cial cost, we should provide thru the school for the 
physical as well as for the psychical and the moral 
development of the child. This is not to take the 
place of the home — merely to supplement the work 
of the majority of homes. Only thus can we ade- 
quately educate all. I believe, too, that in any scien- 
tific view of the educational process the sense organs 
are paramount in importance, and therefore urge 
their care and training. That the positions taken 
in the various addresses upon these and other mat- 
ters are sound has been pretty well demonstrated 
during the last two years when the demands of war 
have faced us. This is made clear in the Introduc- 
tion that follows. 

I am under obligations to the various periodicals 
in which these studies have appeared for permission 
to use them again in this form. I also appreciate 
the curtesy of Mr. Badger, the publisher, in allow- 
ing me to use certain simplified forms of spelling, 
thus departing from the usual over-conservative 



Preface 



practise of publishers. Is not this, too, one of the 
firing-line activities ? 

A. J. Ladd 
Grand Forks, North Dakota, 
March, 1919 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction — Have the Schools Been Discredited 

by the Revelations of the War 13 

I. On the Firing Line in Education 37 

Social Betterment, the Dominant Motive in 

Education 38 

Child Study 43 

Physical Education 50 

The Educational Survey 51 

Vocational Guidance 53 

The Educational Psychologist 56 

II. The Relation of the State University to the High 

Schools of the State 63 

The Elementary School . 65 

The High School 67 

The State University 75 

III. The University and the Teacher 89 

The Kind of Teachers the University Should 

Employ 91 

The University Teacher in his Classroom ... 94 
The University's Attitude Toward the Preparation 

of Teachers for the Schools of the State . . . 105 

IV. The Eye Problem in the Schools 115 

V. The Home, the Church, and the School . . . 133 

The Home 134 

The Church 141 

The School 150 

9 



10 Contents 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

VI. Noblesse Oblige 163 

VII. Improvements in Our Public Schools .... 185 

VIII. Local Winter Sports 203 

IX. The Function of Teachers College 217 

X. Credit for Quality in Secondary and Higher 

Education 243 

Index . . .261 



INTRODUCTION 

HAVE THE SCHOOLS BEEN DISCREDITED 
BY THE REVELATIONS OF THE WAR? 



From School and Society, April 5, 1919 



INTRODUCTION 

HAVE THE SCHOOLS BEEN DISCREDITED 
BY THE REVELATIONS OF THE J WAR? 

KNOWING that I was about to publish a book 
on education in which the Great War, now 
happily closed, was not taken as the point of depar- 
ture, a friend said to me one day, in substance, 
"Aren't you taking undue risks just now in putting 
out a book on education that isn't based upon a pro- 
gram of reconstruction? Haven't all our so-called 
educational principles been dis-credited? Shall you 
get any readers if you do not admit educational 
failure thus far, and proceed to discuss a change 
of front, made imperative by recent revelations?" 
And the editor of a well known educational journal, 
in asking me for an article, recently, said, among 
other things, "I should be glad to have an article 
upon some phase of reconstruction after the war, 
educational, social, philosophical, as you may like. 
Here is the next great battlefield of the future, and 
if the educational forces do not redeem themselves 
here, it is my opinion that we shall become a greater 
laughing stock than we have ever been before." 

To both of these statements I desire to take ex- 
ception. To be sure, the war has taught us many 
lessons bearing upon education ; to be sure, it has 
revealed shortcomings, limitations, and weaknesses. 

13 



14 On the Firing Line in Education 

But it seems to me that it has also made clear that 
we have been working along right lines. Our funda- 
mental educational principles have not been dis- 
credited. There is no far-reaching educational fail- 
ure to admit, nor is there any serious shortcoming 
from which the educational forces of the country 
have to redeem themselves. "Laughing stock," does 
the gentleman say ? Oh no ! Far from it I Let us 
not get panicky! Some weaknesses brought to 
light? Certainly. But in the analysis, later to be 
made, let us see if, for the most part, they do not 
but demonstrate the soundness of our educational 
principles and the far-sightedness of our educational 
leaders together with the short-sightedness of the 
present critics, in that had suggested recommenda- 
tions been followed these weaknesses would not have 
existed. Let us give here but one illustration, and 
that briefly. We all admit that the medical exam- 
inations for the war found too many physical de- 
fects, and too many men thereby incapacitated for 
efficient military service. But would not the results 
have been very different if, during the last genera- 
tion, the suggestions and strong recommendations of 
educators relative to physical education in our 
schools been acted upon by the public? Ah! The 
fault was not with educational principles ; they were 
sound. The educational forces of the country knew 
what was needed, but a parsimonious public would 
not follow intelligent leadership. We could say, all 
along the line, "I told you so," if we felt so in- 
clined. Instead of being the "laughing stock" we 
could — if the matter were not too serious — throw 
the laugh upon the other fellow. The purpose of 
our schools has never been to produce soldiers at the 



Introduction 15 

drop of the hat, and so they have never been blighted 
by military training. (May it never come!) Their 
task has been to produce men and women of char- 
acter and purpose and ideals — men and women of in- 
itiative who could become anything called for by an 
emergency. And nobly have they succeeded, as evi- 
denced by the successful prosecution of the war. 

In view of all that the United States has done to 
assist in bringing the war to its successful close, 
from the adoption of the selective draft down thru 
the management of the training camps, the opera- 
tion of the railroads, conservation of food and fuel, 
to the knitting of a pair of socks and the sale of a 
thrift stamp, what shall be said of the success or 
failure of our schools? Every man, woman, and 
child in this gigantic work, from President Wilson 
down to the colored bootblack who saved his nickels 
to buy a stamp, or to the little girl who voluntarily 
went without her sugar, has been a product of the 
schools. Thru the instruction, the discipline, and 
the training given in those schools, they became the 
men and women who could rise to the emergency and 
do the things needed. And they did. 

No college or university or professional school 
ever taught Mr. Wilson how to be President of the 
United States during these troublous days ; nor 
Mr. McAdoo how to manage the railroads ; nor Mr. 
Pershing all about war; nor any local worker how 
to lead the Red Cross work, any more than the lower 
schools have taught the boys who went into the 
trenches how to use the gas mask and how to go with- 
out food; how to shoulder arms and how to march. 
But the schools all along the line did help to give 
them ideals, did train them in team-play; did instil 



16 On the Firing Line in Education 

into them the principles of democracy and the love 
of country, so that when the need came they arose 
as one man to repel the foe. And the study of arith- 
metic, geography, and grammar ; of chemistry, phys- 
ics, and medicine; of Latin, Greek, and history has, 
in each case, made its contribution to the prepara- 
tion of home workers, soldiers, scientific experts, 
financial managers, and statesmen — has helped to 
make each an individual of initiative. 

Under the guidance of our educational leaders, 
following principles that they had workt out, the 
schools of the country were moving quietly along, 
each one of the 750,000 teachers doing faithfully 
the work at hand day by day. We had never 
thought of war as a possibility for us, and of course 
preparation for it had not been made, in the slight- 
est degree, a part of the work of the schools. But 
when war, with all its horrors, was finally forced 
upon us and we needed statesmen and scientists and 
military leaders to guide and direct, they were at 
hand in the graduates of our colleges and universi- 
ties — broadly trained men capable of assimilating, 
or learning, or in other ways gaining quickly, the 
specific form of efficiency needed in the particular 
activity assigned. And when we needed soldiers they 
were at hand in the person of our boys of the 
schools, both common and high, from every nook and 
corner of the land — boys and men who merely need- 
ed direction and leadership, capable of at once fall- 
ing into line and quickly taking on the professional 
phase of their training. Could we have asked our 
schools to do more? The supreme test had come, and 
it was being met in a manner gratifying to all. The 
boys and the girls, the men and the women, on the 



Introduction 17 

farm, in the store, in the home, in the workshop, 
in the schools and colleges, have responded "Here 
am I. Show me what you want me to do, and I will 
do it even unto death." It was done, and they did 
it. The schools had nobly demonstrated their ef- 
ficiency. 

To be sure, all this was not done without making 
mistakes. Not all the products of all the schools 
were able to rise to the occasion and to be depended 
upon in our hour of need. When the great national 
search-light was trained upon the product of the 
schools, seeking leaders of infinite variety and num- 
ber, and likewise hosts of followers to do definite and 
difficult things, many deficient ones were discovered 
— some deficient in mental caliber, some weak in 
moral fiber, some lacking in physical stamina. And 
right here is to be seen the only serious failure of 
our schools. Not every boy, not every girl, had 
been made as efficient as could have been desired. 
But, happily, in our great numbers enough were 
found to do even the stupendous work at hand, and 
to do it well. In spite of moral lapses, not a few, 
in spite of instances of mental incompetence, far 
too many, and in spite of physical handicaps, dis- 
tressingly large — in spite of all this, I say, the 
United States surprised the world with the quick- 
ness with which we pulled ourselves together, and 
with the marvelous efficiency with which we mobilized 
all our resources. Many losses of course there were 
— losses of men, losses of days, losses^ of dollars. 
But when all is said and done, the losses were slight 
when compared with the accomplishments. Credit 
to whom credit is due! But because of these losses 
unthinking men immediately began to criticise the 



18 On the Firing Line in Education 

schools. They should have been trade schools, or 
industrial schools or military schools — any kind 
of schools that they were not. And how clearly it 
was being demonstrated, we were told, that the time 
formerly spent on music and drawing, art and litera- 
ture, algebra and geometry, history and Latin, had 
all been wasted! How much better it would have 
been if, instead of these "frills," the children had 
been given "practical subjects"! (Practical. Save 
the mark. One is tempted here to go off on a by- 
path and discuss the topic, "What is Practical?") 
Thus the criticism of the unthinking — of the laymen 
who went off at half-cock. 

And this criticism was deepened and strength- 
ened and extended and made more vehement, again 
by the unthinking, when the fine results of the Pitts- 
burgh experiment were revealed, in which, thru the 
processes of intensive training, men were quickly 
whipt into shape for new, and difficult, and respons- 
ible undertakings. And the equally good results 
that came from the officers' training schools, in which 
college boys by a similar program were metamor- 
phosed, almost at over-night, into capable army of- 
ficers, had the same effect. How signally had the 
schools failed ! And these long years spent in school 
and college, "dawdling over the frills," had been to 
no effect, whereas "a few weeks under intelligent 
educational direction accomplishes marvels." 

And the same has further illustration. Ministers 
of the Gospel selected for chaplains, physicians and 
surgeons chosen for medical service, nurses for the 
Red Cross, engineers for various forms of engineer- 
ing, and many others have all been given this short 
period of intensive training and, to their credit and 



Introduction 19 

ours be it said, all responded quickly. But the con- 
clusion drawn by the unthinking has been, all along 
the line, that the later efficiency of these men which 
has gained for us the plaudits and the gratitude of 
the world was due to this short period of intensive 
training, "under men who were intelligent enough to 
know just what was needed and just how to go about 
to secure it — men not hampered by any pedagogical 
nonsense or grown stale over a long attempt to 
discriminate between the "infinity of nothingness and 
the nothingness of infinity" (as one might summa- 
rize a rather common criticism), rather than to the 
former years of patient toil, and discipline, and ac- 
complishment which had really laid the foundation 
so well that all were able thus to respond. The com- 
mon school, the high school, the college, and the 
professional school was discredited, one and all, in 
favor of a short-cut method analogous to the so- 
called "Business College," — a short-cut method that 
could result only in disaster if applied without the 
appropriate preparation. 

How long it does take people to realize that real 
education is a slow process ! that it takes years and 
years and years of varied experiences for the pro- 
cesses of assimilation and development to bring about 
the fine fruitage of stable character! 

And the Government, too (I suppose we can criti- 
cize Washington just a little now without serious 
danger of being sent to jail), must have had the same 
point of view in regard to the general management 
of education since, during the war, it did not entrust 
its educational war program into the hands of the 
National Bureau of Education. It did have the 
War Department and the Navy Department and the 



20 On the Firing Line in Education 

Treasury Department manage their respective 
phases of war activities. Why was not the Depart- 
ment of Education called on to direct the educational 
work? Had it been, the S. A. T. C. fiasco, as well 
as some other blunders, would doubtless have been 
avoided. But the thought (or was it the lack of 
thought?) must have been that most anybody out- 
side of the teaching profession would know better 
how to get educational results than any one from 
within. A similar point of view is generally discern- 
ible in the election of boards of education in towns 
and cities thruout the country — any one is satisfac- 
tory save those who know definitely what should be 
going on inside of the school house. 

Perhaps all this was to be expected. I rather 
think so. But I confess to surprise when I find such 
criticism being echoed from within — from men who 
should know better, as, for example, the two quoted 
at the beginning of this article. The explanation, I 
suppose, is that, timid in nature, they have become 
panicky and lost their bearings. Perhaps they were 
suffering from a mild form of brain-storm, and 
have temporarily slipt back into the ranks of the 
unthinking. 

Let us analyze the situation and see if we can 
discover just what the war did reveal as to the short- 
comings of our educational system. Let us then 
try to locate the responsibility. 

One of the most serious of the educational short- 
comings thus revealed is a high percentage of illit- 
eracy — nearly eight per cent, I understand, the 
country over. The seriousness of such a situation 
can scarcely be overestimated. It was serious in time 



Introduction $1 

of war — the inability of a soldier to read orders, 
or to follow written directions, or to make written 
reports, especially when one takes into considera- 
tion the myriad forms of war service just recently 
used, would limit his possibilities of service and 
cripple himself and all his companions. But illit- 
eracy is even more serious in times of peace, for then 
such individuals are not immediately under the direc- 
tion of intelligent officers and thus prevented from 
the disastrous results of their own ignorant actions. 
Think for a moment of what it means in a democ- 
racy and for a democracy to have one out of every 
ten (disregarding children) of the possible direct- 
ing forces of the government unable to read or 
write ! 

But when we add to this statement of mere illit- 
eracy the fact that a large percentage of these illit- 
erates are of foreign birth or extraction and have 
never learned either to speak or understand the lan- 
guage of their adopted country, the situation is seen 
to be even more serious in potentiality, both in 
peace and war. Our authorities have been too lax, 
it seems, in not requiring that all children of foreign 
extraction, whether foreign or American born, be 
educated in the English language. In communities 
thickly settled by alien peoples they have too often 
allowed the schools to be conducted in the vernacu- 
lars of the people — a German school here, an Aus- 
trian school there, and an Italian school over yonder, 
and so on. And it goes without saying that in 
schools in which children are instructed in alien 
tongues 'tis not the American spirit that is incul- 
cated nor American ideals that take root. No one 



#2 On the Firing Line in Education 

would challenge the statement that here is a defect 
in the execution of our educational program, and 
one that must be remedied at any cost. 

Still another serious weakness as revealed by the 
merciless hand of war is that of physical shortcom- 
ing. A large number of men were rejected for serv- 
ice and a still larger number accepted only for limited 
service because of physical disability as shown by the 
medical examinations. I have not the figures at 
hand, but 'tis common knowledge that the situation 
is considered grave. Eye defects, ear defects, defec- 
tive teeth, weak lungs, flat feet, round shoulders, 
spinal curvature, unsymmetrical development, and 
many other defects were discovered in great num- 
bers. Perhaps nothing but a rigid medical exam- 
ination by a military officer would ever have opened 
our eyes to the real situation. But this did. The 
revelations came as a surprise to nearly all except 
the educational leaders of the country. They have 
known, all the time, what the situation has been 
and, for a generation, have been trying to combat it. 

Again the question is raised as to whether these 
defects, or weaknesses, of American education, in 
both fields mentioned, as serious as they have been 
seen to be for war, are not even a more serious men- 
ace when looked upon from the point of view of 
peace, and therefore, even tho the war has been won, 
of such commanding importance as to demand our 
immediate and continued attention. 

One might go on and name other shortcomings 
in the working out of our educational program that 
have been more clearly brought to the surface dur- 
ing the critical days of our warfare. But this ar- 
ticle is not intended to be a catalog. The two men- 



Introduction 23 

tioned are fundamental and far-reaching. Illit- 
eracy and physical disability ! Weakness along these 
lines strikes at the very roots of national life and 
of individual well-being. And if, as a nation and 
as individuals, we are ever going to enter into our 
inheritance, these defects must be remedied. But 
before trying to discuss remedies, it will be well to 
locate responsibility. Are our basic educational 
principles unsound, or merely our educational prac- 
tises unsatisfactory? Are the educational leaders of 
the country all wrong in theory? Have their heads 
been so high among the clouds that they have not 
seen the real boy and his homely task? Or have 
they seen clearly and mapt out wisely, whereas the 
public, relatively unthinking upon technical matters 
and always slow to act in new fields, has not been 
ready to follow? Is it in theory or in practise 
where the real shortcoming is to be found? The 
answer to the question is vital. If in theory, then 
is the situation serious indeed for that would mean 
that our psychology is wrong — that our whole phi- 
losophy of life and of government has been built upon 
error. Truly, then, after all these years, the "edu- 
cational forces" would need to "redeem" themselves 
so as not to be "a greater laughing stock than we 
have ever been before." But if the weakness lies 
merely in our practise, not yet having been able to 
attain to our ideals, then, tho serious, it would be 
but child's play, comparatively speaking, to put our- 
selves right. We should need to take courage, re- 
double our efforts, and all that, but should not need 
to start all over again. 

How shall we account for the illiteracy revealed 
among both alien and native born? Not by faulty 



£4 On the Firing Line in Education 

methods of teaching can it be explained, nor by any- 
thing else that teachers have done or have not done. 
Illiterates have not attended the schools. It is due 
either to insufficient legislation or to non-enforce- 
ment of laws, doubtless more the latter save in the 
case of adult aliens. 

From the very beginning of our colonial life, early 
in the 17th century, universal education has been 
a part of both our educational and our govern- 
mental creeds. A program of compulsory education 
was early found necessary, early adopted, and never 
abandoned. Beginning in Massachusetts and going 
south and west, following considerably behind but 
then keeping almost even pace with settlement and 
development after statehood had come, legislation 
has decreed that every child born into the land or 
coming into it by immigration shall enjoy the ad- 
vantages of education, at least to the extent of 
knowing how to read and write the English language. 
Every state in the Union has compulsory attend- 
ance laws upon its statute books. These laws are 
not as thorogoing as they should be in many cases 
but yet, even as they are, if enforced, they should 
leave almost no illiteracy among people whose child- 
hood has been spent in this country. For the least 
satisfactory laws — those of some of the Southern 
states, Georgia, for example, require school attend- 
ance for at least four months of each year between 
the ages of eight and fourteen. But illiteracy, even 
among our own people, has been revealed — too much 
of it. The laws have not been enforced. There is 
the sore spot. Why have they not been enforced? 
But of that later. 



Introduction 25 

The education of adult aliens is another matter, 
and a very different one. As a problem it is almost 
new. That is, it has been only in relatively recent 
years that it has been recognized as such. True, for 
several years some of the states most largely affect- 
ed, such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, 
Pennsylvania, and others have been wrestling with 
it, but not very much has yet been attempted to- 
ward introducing the compulsory features. And 
private agencies, philanthropic, industrial, religious, 
political, and others have also done good work. But 
all that had thus far been done had accomplisht 
little more, at the outbreak of the war, than to open 
our eyes to the existence of a problem. And in our 
leisurely way we were going about its solution. But 
war came. The European nations were aflame. We 
had many Europeans in our midst. Investigations 
were made. The universal draft was adopted. The 
revelations were startling. It was discovered that 
in 1910 there were in the United States 2,953,011 
white persons of foreign birth, 10 years of age and 
over, unable to speak the English language. Of 
these 56,80)5 were from ten to fifteen years of age, 
330,994 between fifteen and twenty-one, and 2,565,- 
212 twenty-one and over. Note the number, more 
than two and a half millions, twenty-one years of 
age and over — men grown, fathers of families, many 
of them — unable to speak the language of their 
adopted country ! And of these 788,631 were illiter- 
ate — unable to read or write in any language ! 

Nothing short of legal requirements on a large 
scale, and rigidly enforced, absolutely free of cost 
to the immigrant, can ever remove the menace. The 



26 On the Firing Line in Education 

law-making bodies of the country, both State and 
Federal, must act and act quickly or this growing 
menace will get beyond our control. 

And the long catalog of physical defects — what 
shall be said of them? Shall they be charged against 
the "educational forces" of the country? Are they 
a disgrace from which we must "redeem" ourselves 
so that we shall not become the "greater laughing 
stock"? It is perfectly evident that somebody has 
blundered because the whole sad list of defects is, 
speaking broadly, preventive and, for the most part, 
also remediable. But where lies the responsibility 
— upon the home, the school, or society? Of course, 
primarily, upon the home ; the child comes from the 
home, goes to the home, is a part of the home, is 
under the immediate control of the home. But yet, 
many homes, especially homes of alien peoples, are 
not sufficiently intelligent to have entrusted to them 
matters of such far-reaching importance. And 
many others are not financially able to have proper 
attention given. 

But the school does know. And it, or what it rep- 
resents, is abundantly able financially to handle the 
matter. It knows clearly how the child with physi- 
cal defects is hampered in trying to perform its 
school work; it knows, too, how seriously the entire 
work of the school is interfered with when there are 
many such in the room ; and it also knows the handi- 
cap under which such unfortunate children face life 
when school days are over. And the school knows, too, 
the preventive and remediable natures of these de- 
fects. Possessing all this knowledge, why has it not 
acted? To make a long story short, it has acted. 
To the extent of its authority and with all the influ- 



Introduction 27 

ence and power at its command it has acted, has been 
acting for many years, and is still acting. For 
more than a generation the educational forces of the 
country have been engaged in a nation-wide educa- 
tional campaign designed to make clear to the 
homes of the country and to the voters of the coun- 
try the growing seriousness of the situation. On the 
lecture platform and from the Gospel pulpit, in the 
educational press and in the popular magazine, aye, 
in the daily newspaper, in private conversation and 
in public discussion, in season and out of season, 
they have labored unceasingly to acquaint the pub- 
lic with the facts and to urge preventive and reme- 
dial action. To the unselfish work of these leaders 
of educational thought and action, supplemented by 
the generous assistance of the medical profession, 
is due the fact of our present-day intelligence in re- 
gard to the matter. Educators have been deeply in- 
terested, thoroly alive, and intelligently at work. 
How they have agitated the matter of better ventila- 
tion and better lighting of schoolhouses ! How they 
have pleaded for medical inspection and appropriate 
medical treatment of school children! How they 
have urged the employment of the school nurse ! 
How they have workt for the playground and the 
gymnasium and for sane methods of handling the 
same! 

But they do not form the court of last appeal. 
They have no authority. They all stand in about 
the same anomalous position as does the man nomi- 
nally at the head of the educational activities of the 
country — the United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation. They may gather statistics, make reports, 
and suggest action. But that is all. Tho possess- 



2S On the Firing Line in Education 

ing full knowledge of the situation, tho knowing just 
how to proceed to usher in a better day, they are not 
permitted to take any action. Responsible? Of 
course they are not responsible. "Redeem" them- 
selves? From what, pray? "Laughing stock"? 
How long, oh! how long, will our great army of 
teachers, three-fourths of a million strong, be unap- 
preciated, belittled, and maligned! 

Who, then, is responsible? In the last analysis 
there is but one answer — the public itself. Since the 
community at large as well as the individual afflicted 
is, in the final outcome, a sufferer in every case of 
physical disability, as also in that of illiteracy, it is 
its duty, as a mesure of self-protection, at least, to 
assume direction. Adequate information is at hand 
as to desirable methods of procedure. Demonstra- 
tions a-plenty have been given to prove that the pro- 
gram suggested is feasible, inexpensive, and bene- 
ficial. This has been brought about thru the action 
of a few small groups who have thus presented clear 
and convincing object lessons. But why must we 
say "a few"? Why is not such work nation-wide? 
That is a longer story. It follows. 

The United States of America is a Republic — a 
representative democracy — a government in which 
all the people participate. And the government of 
the United States is a Federal government. It is 
made up of a group of States, each one exercising 
supervision and control over its local matters. And 
education has thus far been considered a local mat- 
ter. And in many ways that soverenty has been still 
further divided. We have as a smaller unit of school 
organization the county, and a smaller one yet, the 
township, and, in many states, a still smaller one, the 



Introduction 29 

school district, containing, in many instances, only 
a few square miles of territory and, of course, a very 
limited population. But in some respects, within 
certain limits, each of these small units is a law unto 
itself, having much to say as to the length of the 
school term, the character of the teaching, and many 
other phases including such as the one under con- 
sideration. 

For these reasons it frequently happens that side 
by side are school districts, or townships, or coun- 
ties, with widely differing educational programs. 
Here is one with attractive buildings, well ventilated 
and well lighted, well equipt in every way, in the 
hands of competent teachers, with physician and 
nurses subject to call. But just over the imaginary 
line is another with nothing quite satisfactory. They 
are just living up to the strict letter of the State's 
requirement and that is all. Not one dollar is be- 
ing spent that represents the community's voluntary 
contribution to the welfare of its child life or to the 
future well-being of humanity. 

And why? Just because we are a Democracy. 
Just because our action must be the united action of 
many, representing the average intelligence of the 
entire governmental unit and not that of its most 
intelligent members. For this reason a democracy is 
always slow to act along new lines. The majority of 
the people have to be convinced of the wisdom of the 
new mesure. And education is itself always a slow 
process. People change their minds slowly. Slow- 
ness of action is one of the prices we have to pay 
for our democracy. On the other hand, an abso- 
lute monarchy can act quickly, for there may be 
but one individual to assimilate the new idea or to 



30 On the Firing Line in Education 

be convinced of the wisdom of the proposed change. 

These facts are easily made clear by historical 
references, and, happily, in the very matter under 
discussion — educational procedure. In the eight- 
eenth century Prussia, under the two great Hohen- 
zollern kings, Frederick William I and his son, Fred- 
erick the Great, the two ruling from 1713 to 1786, 
made most rapid strides in education. Both were 
practically absolute rulers, but they were benevo- 
lent and far-sighted, and the educational reforms 
that they inaugurated were basic and far-reaching, 
such as state-control and support, compulsory at- 
tendance, and the professional education of teachers. 
Being absolute in authority, all they needed to do 
was to promulgate the decrees and order their exe- 
cution. The result was that, educationally, Prussia 
immediately forged ahead of all the other European 
countries. 

England, on the other hand, was a limited monar- 
chy. Her king could not have acted thus even if he 
so desired. Such mesures had to have the sanction 
of Parliament, which would have to hark back to an 
enlightened public opinion since Parliament was a 
representative body. And public opinion, especially 
in matters of education, is slow of creation. As a 
matter of fact, even tho the English people were 
much in advance of the Germans in civilization and 
in all the refinements of life, it was not till 1833 that 
England as a government took her first step looking 
toward the education of her children thru appropri- 
ating money. And the grant of that Act was only 
a paltry £20,000 a year to be used by two re- 
ligious societies for the erection of school houses. 
And it was an entire generation later, even 1870, 



Introduction 31 

before they adopted the necessary principles of com- 
pulsory attendance and local taxation. More than 
a hundred years behind Prussia, England was, in 
the management of educational affairs ! 

Another illustration of the slow action of democ- 
racy is nearer at hand both in time and space, even 
in our own country. For one reason or another, 
rather, for many reasons, education was at a low- 
water mark in the United States the latter part of 
the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth 
centuries. Thoughtful men, progressive educators, 
prominent statesmen, searching for the cause and 
for the remedy, found the one in the poor character 
of the teaching being done and the other in the es- 
tablishment of the State Normal School patterned 
after those of Germany. This was first suggested 
in 1816 in Connecticut and pretty faithfully kept 
before the people of New England thereafter. But 
in spite of every effort, including a campaign of 
education and the establishment of private normal 
schools for the purposes of demonstration, it was not 
till 1838 that the Massachusetts legislature could be 
induced to act. And she would not have done so 
then had it not been that a very prominent man of 
Boston, a friend of the cause, Mr. Edmund Dwight, 
showed his faith in the movement by making a gen- 
erous contribution out of his private funds. Note, 
too, this action from another point of view — the 
amount of Democracy's initial contribution toward 
this new great movement in America : Mr. Dwight's 
gift of $10,000 was evenly matched by that of the 
wealthy state of Massachusetts! And the $20,000 
was the amount planned for the establishment of 
three new normal schools and their maintenance for 



32 On the Firing Line in Education 

three years! That amount to-day would scarcely 
build a coal shed for each of three new normal 
schools ! 

But I am not advocating monarchical methods even 
to hasten so good a cause as educational improve- 
ment. I am merely accounting for our slowness of 
action in needed reform. For several reasons I 
should be decidedly opposed to adopting such a pro- 
gram of centralization even if we could. In the first 
place, not every absolute monarch would act as did 
Frederick the Great. There are few benevolent des- 
pots. In France during the seventeenth centuries 
the Louises were just as absolute as were the Fred- 
ericks in Germany. But they were not interested in 
education for the people. Again, Germany's system 
of education, tho objectively efficient, has been far 
from satisfactory because not based on sane moral 
principles. And that fact, by the way, has finally 
been Germany's undoing. Now, we can scarcely con- 
ceive of Democracy erecting an educational struc- 
ture on an unsatisfactory moral foundation. 

And still again, the action of an absolute mon- 
arch, in all such matters as education, tho perhaps 
temporarily rapid, is not permanent. Remove the 
guiding spirit and it slips back. An illustration 
will assist. Again Germany furnishes it. The little 
duchy of Gotha, just south of Prussia, serves us. 
During the Thirty Years' War Gotha had suffered 
greatly. Near its close, in 1640, Duke Ernest the 
Pious became its ruler. He had at heart the good of 
his people. He believed that education could be a 
very important factor in their upbuilding, and at 
once put into effect a progressive program. His 
people were greatly bettered and his duchy became 



Introduction 33 

a fine object lesson for other German States. But 
Duke Ernest died. And his educational reforms, not 
springing from the people themselves, followed him 
not long after. 

A few years ago President Diaz, Mexico's benev- 
olent despot of nearly half a century, died. And 
his people, never having been taught how to rule 
themselves nor practised in the art, went to pieces. 

Democracy is slow but she is apt to be sure. Her 
action in educational matters is often provokingly 
dilatory, but she holds what she gains and thus con- 
tinues to progress. She does not take a step for- 
ward until she is sure of her ground, but then she 
stands firm. Her actions are the results of deliber- 
ate thought based on adequate data gathered from 
actual experiments and not to be shaken. Democ- 
racy would not give up universal education nor take 
one step backward in the matter of compulsory at- 
tendance to secure it. She would not part with her 
elementary normal schools for anything in the 
world. And when once she sees her duty clear she 
will add to her school workers, in every community, 
the physician, the nurse, and the playground direc- 
tor. She will do it and, quickly noting improve- 
ments, soon wonder why she had not done it long 
before. 

Since so much emphasis has been placed on the 
conservative nature of Democracy and on its conse- 
quent slowness of action, a word should be added as 
to its possibilities in emergency. Tho we were slow 
in entering the Great War, once our duty was clear 
we acted with a promptness, a unanimity, and an 
efficiency that surprised both friend and foe, giving 
heart to the one and consternation to the other. 



34 On the Firing Line in Education 

Tho a democracy, we invested our chief executive 
with a power and an authority beyond that possest 
by any monarch in the world. 

So let us not be discouraged. The situation is 
not as bad as it might be. Our fundamental prin- 
ciples are sound. We are working along right lines 
and accomplishing good results. Our shortcomings, 
our weaknesses, our failures, if you wish to call them 
such, are seen only when our record is compared 
with a perfect score. The schools have not yet at- 
tained to 100 per cent efficiency; that is, the coun- 
try over. Here and there, under the favorable con- 
ditions of an intelligent citizenry willing to fol- 
low expert leadership even to the extent of provid- 
ing adequate funds, are schools and departments of 
schools of approximately 100 per cent efficiency. 
And these, as Democracy's experiments, assure us 
of other advance steps. They are object lessons. 
Thus Democracy always advances. 

Finally, what shall we say? What shall we do? 
Not to "redeem" ourselves, oh, no ! not that ! but 
to approximate the 100 per cent efficiency all along 
the line? What? Why, knowing that we are head- 
ed aright, keep steadily forward with our eyes on 
the goal, refusing to be stampeded by the unthinking 
critic of whom Democracy always has a plenty. 
Take courage ! Speed up ! 



I 

ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION 



President's Address delivered at the Annual Banquet 

of the Fortnightly Club, Grand Forks, 

North Dakota, June h 1917 



ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION 

THE plan of the military campaign is worked 
out in the quiet, away back in the rear, some- 
times at considerable distance from the place of 
actual hostilities. It is worked out quietly, usually 
slowly, and attracts but little attention. But when 
worked out and ready to be put into operation, the 
plan is taken forward and activities begin. Sup- 
plies are gotten ready, men stationed, guns loaded, 
the firing line is formed. Here is where the battle 
is to be fought, where an attempt is to be made to 
carry out the plans formed in the quiet, back there 
in the rear. Activity characterizes the scene. Ad- 
vances are being made, new things being done. Every 
effort is put forth to realize the plans. 

It is not different in education. In the quiet of 
the laboratories and the study, thoughtful men con- 
sider conditions, form plans, and develop theories 
of educational betterment that have to be tried out, 
out in the open. A firing line has to be formed, a 
place where new things are to be done different from 
the regular conventional activities. The humdrum, 
prosaic, traditional, everyday work goes on, in the 
main, all around but at these points where some 
advances are being tried, a new and it is hoped bet- 
ter program tested. All eyes are centered, all 
minds eager. The analogy is not inapt. 

37 



38 On the Firing Line in Education 

It is my purpose to discuss briefly some of the 
things thai are happening on our educational firing 
lines. I want to bring to your attention first, how- 
ever, the plan of the great educational campaign 
upon which we have entered, the goal before us at 
the present time, and then take up a few of the 
relatively new and typical positions being taken by 
leaders of educational thought, having the realiza- 
tion of that goal in view. This will present to you 
some of the things that are actually being done in 
a few progressive communities and point out possi- 
bilities for others. 



Social Betterment, the Dominant Motive in 
Education 

If I interpret aright the present-day educational 
thought, the dominant motive in it all is social in 
character. That is to say, in all of our plans for 
the education of children we keep them in mind as 
future members of society, acting with one another 
and all working together for the common good and 
for the betterment of the race. And around this 
motive, or back of it, or being used by it as a means, 
can be grouped all the significant educational prac- 
tises of the time. 

Formerly the motive was largely psychological. 
That is, the school effected its organization, chose 
its curriculum, worked out its program, and decided 
upon its methods in order that it might assist the 
child in the development of its instincts and ca- 
pacities, thus enabling him to realize his own per- 
sonality. The great French educator, Rousseau, 
living in the eighteenth century, was responsible for 



On the Firing Line in Education 39 

this movement and it was a notable advance beyond 
the haphazard and aimless practise of the time. 
Pestalozzi, the great Swiss educational reformer, 
Froebel, the German apostle of childhood, and Her- 
bart, the psychological genius of the Fatherland, 
were disciples of Rousseau and worked out from his 
point of view, trying to put it into practise in the 
school-rooms. 

And here was the firing line in education for many 
a long day. True, none of these later men ignored 
social relationships as did Rousseau. True, a strong 
case could be made out, if one should wish to defend 
the thesis, that these distinguished followers of Rous- 
seau, even tho carrying out his program in the main, 
were likewise inaugurating the new sociological 
movement. But yet it was not sufficiently clear to 
dominate even in their own minds. The individual 
stood out beyond the mass. He filled the stage. 
Nor did they clearly pass it on to others. As a 
matter of fact, what the immediate followers of these 
men got from them was the theory of individualism 
in its better form. 

The best definition of education that can be given 
from this point of view is the development of an 
inner life. That is what Rousseau wanted to bring 
about and Pestalozzi and Froebel, and our own 
Colonel Parker of more recent times, the modern 
apostle of childhood, had the same vision. And so 
to Froebel and these others, likewise, the school was 
an institution in which each child should discover 
his own individuality, work out his own personalit}^, 
and develop harmoniously all his powers. True, in 
that environment and doing all that, the child is 
going to learn the relationships of society, and thus 



40 On the Firing Line in Education 

the school might become a means for social progress 
as well as the instrument of individual development. 
But this was incidental. The development of the 
inner life was the goal. Fashioned in the quiet, in 
the study, away from the haunts of man, this be- 
came the program and the rallying cry, and out on 
the firing line it was striven for. On the educa- 
tional battlefields of both Europe and America, 
where redoubts were being stormed and advance 
positions taken, this was the one great end in view. 
It eventuated in the child study movement of the 
present generation that is now at its height and that 
has done so much to mitigate the severities of the 
old time school room practises and likewise greatly 
aided in putting education on a scientific basis. 

The immediate followers, I say, of the great Eu- 
ropean quartet of educators had the above worthy 
goal in view ; but with their followers, many of them, 
especially the noisy ones, the modern sophists, it 
degenerated into a theory of pure individualism of 
the most selfish type. The theory of getting on in 
the world, every man for himself, became rampant. 
The school came to be looked upon as an institution 
in which children could learn how to get ahead of 
the rest of the community, and education as merely 
another weapon to use in making society contribute 
more to purse and pleasure. And on the firing line, 
formed by these noisy agitators, mistaken by many 
as educational leaders, these were the things striven 
for. But this aberration was only temporary. The 
real educational leaders, in trying to realize the goal 
of Rousseau and Pestalozzi and to do it having to 
combat this movement of wildcat educational specu- 
lation, gradually came to see a more important truth 



On the Firing Line in Education 41 

even than the one they were seeking. As on many 
another firing line, victories by the wayside have 
clarified our vision and given us new perspectives, 
and a goal, not at first recognized, looms large upon 
the horizon. 

For thru all this struggle we have learned that 
the first business of the public school is to teach the 
child to live in the world in which he finds himself, 
to understand his share in it and to perform it be- 
cause, after all, unless people learn to adapt them- 
selves to other individuals and communities, disorder 
and chaos follow. In it all we have come to see that 
education is the best instrument for regenerating 
society. 

Not individual development, then, the selfish view 
of Rousseau, not even the harmonious development 
of all the faculties, the one-sided, somewhat re- 
stricted, or undeveloped, view of Pestalozzi and 
others of his followers, surely not individual effi- 
ciency for personal gain, the selfish view of crass 
materialism, but social efficiency is the present-day 
motive in education. And the definition of education 
takes on a different color. Not merely the develop- 
ment of inner life but in conjunction with that or in 
addition to it, the development in the individual of 
the power of adjustment to an ever changing social 
environment. And likewise the school becomes more 
than a place in which the child can discover him- 
self. Aye, it is the instrument that democracy has 
fashioned for realizing its broad and humanitarian 
ideal. Democracy is ever striving for closer and 
more harmonious relation between its members, a 
greater degree of social justice, and the school is 
its efficient means. 



42 On the Firing Line in Education 

These two tendencies, the psychological and the 
sociological, — only two since the narrow individual- 
istic was never accepted and is now being rapidly 
eliminated — these two are not antagonistic nor mu- 
tually exclusive. The difference is largely in point 
of view or emphasis. One may say that they are 
but the two sides of the same shield but the fact re- 
mains that there are two sides. There is a differ- 
ence and the change came as suggested. And the 
change has modified conditions on the firing line. 
Ever since Mr. Spencer asked his suggestive ques- 
tion, "what knowledge is of most worth," the ques- 
tion of educational values has been raised and the 
curriculum has come under close scrutiny. The re- 
sult has been a modification. The purely linguistic 
and literary, that which does not function directly 
for preparation in life and society, is slowly giving 
way to that which deals with the facts and forces 
of nature and of social institutions. 

Thus far I have tried to make plain the great 
educational campaign in which we are engaged, as 
seen on the firing line, — to point out the goal be- 
fore us, universal education, of course, and social 
efficiency for each member of the group. That sug- 
gests at once as a definition of education, the one 
made famous by Herbert Spencer more than a half 
century ago, "Preparation for complete living." 
That was good as a start in the new direction, but 
one of the most prominent generals of our educa- 
tional forces now commanding at the front, John 
Dewey of Columbia University, has suggested a 
modification which brings it up to date and gives 
the keynote of explanation to the tactics now in 
vogue out there in the front ranks. He says that 



On the Firing Line in Education 43 

instead of being the preparation for life, education 
is life itself. Some without trying to probe deeply 
into the thought back of the trenchant expression, 
have said that this was a mere play upon words. 
But Dewey is not a man who plays with words. 
What he meant by the statement is that the child 
is best prepared for life as an adult by living the 
right kind of life as a child. That is by living a life 
that has real meaning to him now, a normal natural 
life, putting forth those activities that spring from 
within, not merely sitting behind a narrow desk try- 
ing to memorize wordy descriptions of complicated 
facts thought to be useful to him later on. And 
when we go out and see what they are doing on the 
firing line we shall see just that being done. 

Child Study 

But perhaps I should guard against a possible 
misapprehension. In eliminating the materialistic 
point of view in individualism — narrow individual 
development for personal gain — we have not thrown 
aside the goal of development suggested by Rous- 
seau and Pestalozzi. Advanced educational thought 
has that prominently in mind — the discovery of the 
child's latent powers — his possibilities — his tastes 
— his "bent" and the development of the same. But 
while with them that was the goal, the end in view, 
and a somewhat selfish one, even tho not crassly ma- 
terialistic, it has become, with us, a means to a 
larger end, namely, social betterment. The child 
must be known and developed to enable it to be able 
to contribute its largest quota to the welfare of 
society. 



44 On the Firing Line in Education 

With this general direction of educational ac- 
tivity made plain, and incidentally the character of 
the activities along the entire battle front, let us 
pass to a consideration of a few specific activities 
that will illustrate the general movement. Let us 
bear in mind that we have in view, in the first place, 
the individual child whose tastes and aptitudes we 
must discover and, on the basis of discovery, whose 
fullest development, consistent with the rights of 
others, we must seek. And the reason for this, you 
know, is that only as this is done and he is prepared 
to do that kind of work in the world for which his 
tastes best adapt him — only thus can he be made 
the most efficient member of society possible. Be- 
cause, as Plato said, centuries ago, "Society is but 
the individual writ large" — a collection of individu- 
als. The foundation of all things in social life is 
the individual. 

Now, I'll admit, at once, that that is not the 
program of the rank and file of the schools. It 
should be, but it isn't. What the schools are trying 
to do, in the main, is to teach the children a lot of 
facts that tradition says would be well for them to 
know when they become adults, wholly irrespective 
of the child's present attitude toward these facts — 
whether or not they have meaning for him. What 
the high schools are trying to do is to teach the 
relatively few who survive this grade program, in 
addition to these elementary tradition-directed facts 
of knowledge, a lot more of meaningless matter pre- 
scribed by the colleges and listed under that allur- 
ing title, "entrance requirements." And as a result 
of these programs the schools are sending alto- 
gether too many of their boys and girls into society 



On the Firing Line in Education 45 

unacquainted with themselves, and ill-fitted for any 
useful occupation, and therefore out of sympathy 
with the serious work of the world. They are mis- 
fits in the social and economic world and are obliged 
to take their places in the ranks of the lowest-paid 
of unskilled labor — and work up if they can. 

Now, what is being done on the firing lines to 
remedy this situation and to usher in the new day? 
Well, first, in our normal schools — institutions estab- 
lished and maintained for the simple purpose of pre- 
paring young people for teaching children — great 
emphasis is being placed upon the study of the child. 
It is felt that only as the teacher understands the 
child mind and the laws of its development can she 
direct that development aright. (That's a sensible 
point of view, isn't it? And yet it is only on the 
firing line in educational practise that we find it 
recognized. Without that factor of equipment, the 
teacher is teaching subjects, not boys and girls.) 
In many normal schools child study is one of the 
required subjects — no one may graduate or be 
recommended for a teaching position who has not 
taken it. It should be required in all — and will be 
a little later on. No person should be allowed to 
occupy the position of teacher of children who has 
not made such a study — and proved himself efficient 
in it. Boards of education should demand it even 
if some normal schools do not yet require it for 
graduation. It is far and away the most important 
part of the teacher's professional equipment. 

And then in our schools of education and teachers 
colleges — institutions set apart for preparing teach- 
ers for our high schools and for administrative po- 
sitions — the study of adolescence is receiving in- 



46 On the Firing Line in Education 

creasing attention. The high school boy and the 
high school girl are being made the subjects of close, 
careful, scientific study. It is thought that in order 
to deal effectively with these young people the high 
school teacher should understand those marvelous 
changes — physical, mental, and moral — thru which 
they are passing. How else can one know how to 
check where checking is needed (and it usually is 
needed somewhere along the line) ; to guide where 
the pathway is obscure (and every adolescent is 
sure to pass thru valleys of darkness during the 
high school course) ; and to inspire where inspira- 
tion is lacking (and with some it is lacking a good 
deal of the time) — in a word, how else than thru 
a knowledge of the situation can one be the "phi- 
losopher, guide, and friend" that the adolescent 
always needs? 

Do you know that about one-fourth of all stu- 
dents who enter the freshman classes of our high 
schools, thruout the United States, drop out be- 
fore the close of the first semester? Do you know, 
too, that the elimination continues right along until 
that one-fourth is made more than one-half before 
graduation day arrives? Now, these boys and girls 
enter full of hope and expectation, eager and am- 
bitious for what the high school is supposed to do 
for them ; they do not plan to drop out before com- 
pleting the course — nor do their parents plan to 
have them do so. Why do they do it? What has 
changed their point of view and sent them from the 
school, sad and disappointed, and their parents dis- 
satisfied with both school and child? What is it? 
Do you want me to tell you? The situation has been 
the subject of investigation in many places thruout 



On the Firing Line in Education 



47 



the country, and the conclusion reached by thought- 
ful men and women, unbiased students of educational 
practises, is that, while many influences combine to 
bring about that unfortunate result, the chief cause 
of this high mortality is the unsympathetic attitude 
of high school teachers toward the adolescent. But, 
you may ask, why unsympathetic? Because they 
regard them as fickle, unstable, and irrational, and 
so have but little patience with them. I'll admit 
that the adolescent seems all that at times, but that 
is only on the surface. The developmental changes 
— physical and moral — thru which he is passing of- 
ten make the life during this period one of turmoil. 
From fourteen to eighteen — the normal high school 
period — is frequently called the "storm and stress 
period" of life. Not having made a study of the 
situation, high school teachers, in the main, do not 
know the fundamental scientific facts, and there- 
fore can not account for actions, points of view, 
signs of waywardness, lack of appreciation, poor 
lessons, etc., etc., that sometimes characterize the 
youth while a student in the high school. They 
often lay to an unclean mind what springs from a 
perfectly normal development of the sex function; 
they are sure that moral perversity is the basis of 
actions that are more correctly explained by refer- 
ence to a moral nature merely in the process of de- 
velopment ; they think that pure laziness alone ex- 
plains the lack of vigorous work, whereas the boy 
is growing so fast that he has no strength for any- 
thing else; they scold him for being awkward and 
say it is due to carelessness and a slip-shod mind, 
because they do not know that the muscles some- 
times grow faster than the bones, making accurate 



48 On the Firing Line in Education 

co-ordination a physical impossibility ; in a word, to 
general, all round cussedness they charge behavior 
that should be referred to high blood pressure, ach- 
ing bones, the knitting together by fiber growth of 
the various brain centers, and finally, to youthful 
enthusiasm, all of which are perfectly normal signs 
of developing youth. They do it because they do 
not know any better. They are ignorant of many 
things that touch, and vitally, the young people 
with whom they are working. But how could it be 
otherwise? They have never given any reflective 
thought to the matter. The term "half-baked" 
that they often apply to the adolescent in disgust, 
or in coarse jest, is, from this point of view, more 
applicable to themselves. 

That, I say, — the unsympathetic attitude of the 
high school teacher toward the adolescent — is the 
chief cause of the high mortality of high school stu- 
dents. That, coupled with another, that springs 
from the same fundamental situation — ignorance of 
the needs and points of view of the adolescent — tho 
not so chargeable to the individual class teacher as 
to the school system as a whole, local, state, and 
national, pretty nearly cover the ground. The 
other cause to which I refer is the course of study 
and program of activities that are so ill-adapted 
to the tastes, and needs, and capacities of adoles- 
cent boys and girls — studies and activities that have 
no real meaning to them and that fit them for noth- 
ing definite save college entrance where the same old 
process, meaningless to many, often goes on for 
another period. 

What is being done on the firing line to better 
such conditions? A good deal; quite a good deal. 



On the Firing Line in Education 49 

Normal schools and schools of education here and 
there, the former more than the latter, are now 
giving attention to the matter, requiring in some 
cases and urging in others, prospective teachers to 
become intelligent in regard to the lives they are to 
direct. It is being done at our own institution as 
at others. This year Dr. Todd has given instruction 
in child study to nearly one hundred young men and 
women who are looking forward to teaching in the 
grades, and I have had a group of some thirty- 
five or forty prospective high school teachers and 
superintendents who have been making a careful 
study of adolescence. I guarantee that these people 
will not make the crude and unfeeling blunders that 
I have mentioned as too common among high school 
teachers, as they run. These are firing-line activi- 
ties. They were nearly new a dozen years ago. My 
introduction of such courses in our University was 
smiled at indulgently by some of my colleagues and 
sharply criticised, especially the work in adolescence, 
by others. They are not yet required of students 
preparing to teach, but have evidently demonstrated 
their value since, tho in no sense snap courses, they 
have become very popular. 

As illustrative of this work let me refer to a no- 
table recent action of the legislature of Iowa. It 
has just passed an Act appropriating to the State 
University $25,000 a year for the purpose of financ- 
ing what is called a "child-welfare" campaign. The 
plan is to make an exhaustive scientific study of the 
child from both the physiological and psychological 
points of view, to the end that it may be better 
known and thus more satisfactorily guided in its 
educational career. 

One other thing, in this same connection, is being 



50 On the Firing Line in Education 

done on our firing lines all over the country — some- 
thing that is hoped will set the people at large, par- 
ents and citizens generally, to thinking sanely on 
educational matters and ere long rectify our blun- 
ders as to subjects of study and general school ac- 
tivities and thus result in sending the children out 
efficient workmen in suitable fields. I refer to ad- 
dresses and discussions such as this and others, to 
articles in newspapers and magazines, and the edu- 
cational press, and to even more extensive and thoro 
discussions put out in book form from time to time 
for the laymen. 

The old darkey says, "The world do move." We 
sometimes think it moves very slowly, but yet it 
"do move." Tho we can't see it move, we can, by 
looking back, see that it has moved. 

Physical Education 

Another thing for which we are fighting out on the 
firing lines is an adequate system of physical educa- 
tion. This would include periodical medical inspec-. 
tion of every child from the kindergarten up; it 
would also include the school nurse and the visiting 
nurse, and, as well, free public clinics for ear, eye, 
nose, throat, and tooth difficulties. It would also 
include, for mental and moral as well as physical 
ends, well-equipt playground and gymnasium facili- 
ties under the direction of men and women expert 
and skilful in those fields — and these would be in 
operation the entire year. 

The physical education of the child and adoles- 
cent should be as carefully planned, as scientifically 
workt out in a positive way, as the intellectual. Why 



On the Firing Line in Education 51 

not? Because you know — every intelligent person 
knows — that the physical is the basis for the mental 
and the moral. You know — we all know — that a 
sound, a healthy, a sane life can not be developt in 
an unsound or a diseased body. Then why are these 
activities merely on the firing lines and not a part 
of the regular program? Because ignorance, and 
prejudice, and selfishness, and stubbornness, and 
penuriousness are still keeping many people in the 
trenches. But they will be dislodged. Just as sure 
as fate they will be driven from cover. They are 
fighting a losing battle. They are standing in the 
way of an irresistible movement that is sure to en- 
gulf them. If there were time I should like to de- 
scribe just what is being done along this line in some 
places and give the reflex influence of the same on 
the community. It has surely meant a new heaven 
and a new earth to many a child, and glimmerings 
of the same to many a community. But I pass to 
less spectacular matters, continuing to discuss 
principles rather than illustrations. 

The Educational Survey 

Another matter of interest these days is the edu- 
cational survey that has been taken up by many 
progressive communities. The plan is, as many of 
you know, to subject the school system of a city 
or community to a searching investigation in order 
to discover, if possible, its weak points, if it has 
any, to the end of their betterment. Experts are 
brought in who, without fear or favor, examine the 
system from all possible points of view — location 
and arrangement of school buildings including heat- 



52 On the Firing Line in Education 

ing, lighting, and general health conditions, ade- 
quacy of playground and athletic facilities, the ex- 
tent to which the schools are satisfying community 
needs in the way of equipt workmen and the needs 
of the young people for equipment for suitable work, 
the cost of the system, attendance, methods of teach- 
ing and supervision, course of study, etc. Outside 
experts are brought in for various reasons: known 
to have no personal interest in the outcome, their 
reports are likely to be received with greater re- 
spect; and, too, a local committee, thru nearness 
and very familiarity, would fail to notice features, 
good as well as bad, that might at once attract the 
attention of strangers. Many cities, ranging from 
2500 to half a million people, have already availed 
themselves of the survey with, in the main, very 
gratifying results. Not only have cities used the 
survey, but other units of educational administra- 
tion. There have been a few very significant and 
interesting rural school surveys by counties in sev- 
eral states. A similar study has been made of several 
State universities, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, for ex- 
ample. I notice that the legislature of Minnesota 
has just arranged for a survey of theirs. You all 
recall that such a survey was made of all the insti- 
tutions of higher education of North Dakota only a 
short time ago. The general feeling is that it was 
well worth while. Such and even more extensive sur- 
veys have already been made in five other states — 
Oregon, Iowa, Washington, Colorado, and Wyoming.* 
The end sought in each and all of these surveys, 
whether city schools, higher institutions, or state- 
wide systems, is greater efficiency — larger service to 
society. A survey of this character is usually fol- 



On the Firing Line in Education 53 

lowed by a detailed printed report that is gener- 
ously distributed resulting in greater interest in the 
schools and a more intelligent appreciation of their 
work and their needs. 



Vocational Guidance 

Much has been said in recent years about voca- 
tional education. The schools have been severely 
criticised for not teaching trades. Many have de- 
manded that that be the dominating motive in all our 
schools, especially in the high schools. The educa- 
tional press, for the last decade, has kept the mat- 
ter in the limelight. Books have been written call- 
ing attention to the heavy dropping out of school 
of pupils even before reaching high school age wholly 
unfitted to do anything above the most menial and 
lowest-paid work. They have argued strenuously 
and sometimes logically for better things. To this 
program the objection has been raised that children 
in these early years are not yet ready to choose their 
work of life; that they do not yet sufficiently know 
themselves — their own tastes and capacities for such 
serious choice ; it has also been urged that to place 
before children such attractive objective features 
would result in swerving many from the normal path- 
way of their development and check it midway. The 
result has been what might be called a compromise, 
and the firing-line activities have been somewhat 
modified. Not vocational education but vocational 
guidance is now more nearly the thought. And this 
has a much larger content, a background, a more 
scientific basis, and one organically connected with 
the larger movement of which I have already spoken 



54 On the Firing Line in Education 

— the social motive in education supplemented by 
the individual involving the discovery and develop- 
ment of taste and capacity. 

I have already called attention to the high mor- 
tality of high school students. The reasons I have 
given are the lack of sympathy that the teacher 
has with the adolescent and the lack of meaning 
found in the work being done. The same facts ac- 
count for the heavy elimination that takes place 
in the upper grades of the elementary school. But 
both are being remedied to some extent. The first 
thru the child-study movement and the second thru 
the matter of vocational guidance. And the two 
are very closely connected as one can see at a glance. 
Thru the child-study movement the teacher comes 
to know child nature so well that direct application 
can be made to the individual child and an intimate 
knowledge gained of his tastes, capacities, ambitions, 
and dominant interests. This will enable her to give 
the subject matter definite meaning in the early 
years, and, later on, when vocations begin to at- 
tract, the guiding may be intelligent and the final 
choice a suitable one. From the beginning of the 
adolescent period there should be opportunities fur- 
nished by the school or thru its co-operative effort 
for children to test themselves in various lines — 
academic lines, vocational lines. They should, in a 
word, be vocationally tempted in as many different 
directions as possible so as to come to know them- 
selves so well that the final settling will not be hap- 
hazard. In these ways they should be guided into 
their vocations, definite ones, just as early in life as 
they can be adequately prepared for them. For 
example: — if his tastes and capacities fit a certain 



On the Firing Line in Education 55 

boy for merely a mechanical pursuit that requires 
but little academic learning, such as carpentry, 
plumbing, blaeksmithing, brick laying, etc., he 
should, relatively early in the adolescent period, be 
thus guided, and not forced to attempt an academic 
course that can have no possible meaning to him. 
This would send him out, a productive member of so- 
ciety, happy in his work because suited to him and 
efficient in it because fitted for doing it well. If, on 
the other hand, tastes and capacities fit for academic 
or professional careers, such as medicine, law, teach- 
ing, or engineering, the principle would remain the 
same but the program would differ. The academic 
work, meaningless to the prospective plumber, or 
dressmaker, would be full of meaning to the embryo 
lawyer or teacher, and the period of preparation 
much prolonged. 

Such are the points of view that teachers should 
hold, and such the opportunities that schools should 
offer. And it is all being found out on the firing 
lines. This program is being carried out to some 
extent in many places in different parts of the 
country. The time is not very far distant when 
something of the kind will be demanded in all our 
towns. For out in the front ranks the high school 
is no longer regarded chiefly as a preparatory for 
college. Out there it is seen to possess a much 
larger function — assisting the child — every child — 
to form its own acquaintance and to begin the plan- 
ning of its future. In other words, the thought on 
the firing line is that the high school is an institu- 
tion established by a community for community pur- 
poses — to take its young people — all of them — and 
guide them thru the difficult and transitional period 



56 On the Firing Line in Education 

of adolescence, directing, inspiring, shaping, check- 
ing, developing for the largest manhood and woman- 
hood possible and providing the community with 
efficient workmen in various lines. 



The Educational Psychologist 

While there are many other activities, significant 
and interesting, that might well be considered in 
such a treatment as this, I shall close with a very 
brief mention of one more — the place and work of 
the educational psychologist in our modern system. 

One of the most significant of the newer move- 
ments in educational procedure is that termed edu- 
cational mesurements, perhaps better called the 
mesurement of intelligence. About a generation 
ago it began to be observed that many children did 
not pass thru the grades with the regularity that 
was thought normal or desirable. Many were 
obliged to repeat grades — they did not "pass," to 
use the language of the schools. The more the mat- 
ter was investigated, the more serious was it seen to 
be. Investigation has gone on until at last carefully 
gathered statistics tell us that almost, if not quite, 
one-half of all the children in the schools fail to 
progress thru the grades at the expected rate. For 
some reason, or for some combination of reasons, 
they are retarded from one to three years. And of 
the $400,000,000 annually spent to carry on the 
work of the schools it is estimated that from $40,- 
000,000 to $50,000,000 go every year in attempts 
to teach these retarded ones what they have already 
tried but failed to learn. Here was a double loss, 
a financial one of large proportions and a human 



On the Firing Line in Education 57 

one of much more serious import. Why the retarda- 
tion? And what could be done to check it? 

Thoughtful consideration was given to the matter 
with the following revelation : it was seen that in edu- 
cational procedure all matters of grading, promo- 
tion, even choice of subject matter where there was 
a choice, were being handled on the basis of results 
of tests of information — possession of knowledge 
facts — rather than of ability or intelligence. This 
might not be so bad if the knowledge sought in these 
tests were knowledge necessary to have in order to 
function adequately in the new or advanced envi- 
ronment. But usually no such relationship could be 
traced. It was but another illustration of no pres- 
ent meaning connected with the work of the school. 
A remedy was sought, and is being sought, in trying 
to substitute for the information test a test of intelli- 
gence. It is generally admitted that neither one is 
an adequate mesure of the other. A child may have 
a very high grade of intelligence and yet make a 
very poor showing in the ordinary schoolroom test 
for knowledge, not that he has been unable to learn 
such facts but merely that his interests and atten- 
tion have not been thus focust. On the other hand, 
it is entirely possible for one of low-grade intelligence 
to receive a very creditable "mark" in a test for in- 
formation since it is frequently a test of verbal mem- 
ory, that "great simulator of intelligence," as Binet 
calls it. 

One of the most interesting of the books bearing 
upon this new educational movement is The Measure- 
ment of Intelligence by Professor Terman of Leland 
Stanford University. In the thoughts just exprest' 
I have used material found in this book. 



58 On the Firing Line in Education 

So, for a few years now, educational psychologists 
have been trying to work out a series of tests of in- 
telligence, so that children may be located on the 
basis of their general intelligence, or ability to ac- 
complish results. The results so far are very prom- 
ising as tending to eliminate much of the loss men- 
tioned above. And out on our firing lines the educa- 
tional psychologist is being looked upon as a neces- 
sity in any system looking forward to real efficiency. 
It is thought that thru the saving he could effect in 
the two directions cited his regular employment 
would be a matter of economic foresight. A few 
years ago it was the school physician who was being 
fought for out in the front ranks. He is now a 
fixture in every up-to-date school system, and it is 
the psychologist for whom battle is now being waged. 
And it is only a question of time when his position 
will be secure and the line pushed forward for an- 
other attack. 

I have discust with you briefly some of the inter- 
esting points of view of the education of to-day. I 
have tried to place before you, first, what I think to 
be its dominant motive — social betterment, made 
effective thru discovery and development of the in- 
dividual's tastes and dominant interests. To show 
how this program is becoming established and worked 
out, I have touched upon various new lines of activity 
in sympathy with and contributing to the general 
movement. Thus I discust briefly the great child- 
study movement having for its goal knowledge of the 
individual child as a basis for its educational treat- 
ment. Following this I spoke of physical education 
— its beginning in many places and the great need 
for extension. Another activity named was the 



On the Firing Line in Education 59 

educational survey by means of which a community 
may have its own educational activity tested by im- 
partial experts that its real efficiency may be known. 
Then followed brief discussion of the new movement 
for vocational guidance that is doing so much where 
being used to make the youth efficient and happy in 
his chosen and appropriate field of activity. I closed 
the discussion with a mention of a still newer move- 
ment having the same great ends in view — the em- 
ployment of the educational psychologist. Firing-line 
activities all of these are, each vigorous and active 
in the great movement for educational betterment. 



II 



THE RELATION OF THE STATE UNIVER- 
SITY TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE 
STATE 



An Address delivered before the Annual Conference 

of the North Dakota Superintendents and 

Principals at the University of North 

Dakota, May 18, 1916 



II 



THE RELATION OF THE STATE UNIVER- 
SITY TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF 
THE STATE 

THIS is a topic of great interest to us all — to 
you in the field and to us here on the campus. 
The work of the two institutions is so closely related, 
each depends so much upon the other, that partici- 
pation in the activities of one bespeaks interest in 
the other. But before we can discuss at all intelli- 
gently the matter of relationship it will be necessary 
to look at the two separately — objectively, as it 
were — to note the function of each and its place in 
the educational system of the State. What is the 
university? What is the high school? And what 
is the work of each? are questions that must first be 
answered. 

In the first place, of course, the two are but parts 
of a still larger whole, neither being an independent, 
self-sufficing entity. The larger whole is the educa- 
tional system of the State, of which there is one other 
part equally important with the two named, even 
the elementary school. And all three parts forming 
the whole are creations of the State, devised, con- 
trolled, and maintained for a very definite purpose — 
namely, the welfare and happiness of our people. 

While it is true that the three parts are correla- 
tive, each supplementing the others and the system 

63 



On the Firing Line in Education 

incomplete without all three, it is also true that they 
are co-ordinate, no one of the three being, per se, in 
authority over any other, nor any one subordinate 
to another. Let me put before you, very briefly, that 
we may all be thinking together, the system in its 
outlines and then discuss each of its parts, trying to 
discover its function and its mode of work. Then 
we shall pass to the matter of relationship. 

The system as a whole covers and tries to pro- 
vide for the entire school life of the individual. The 
elementary period, or department, includes, in the 
main, as now organized, the work of the first eight 
years of the child's school life and ministers to it 
from the age of six to fourteen years. The sec- 
ondary, beginning where the elementary closes, car- 
ries on the work for four years and is followed by 
the higher, the colleges and the professional schools 
— the university. 

It may clarify matters somewhat and thus give us 
a clearer perspective, if, before, entering upon the 
discussion, I account for the system as we have it 
to-day. 

Our Colonial forefathers in the Old Bay State, 
back in the 17th century, in providing to meet the 
situation that prest upon them, unconsciously laid 
the foundations for an educational system that ex- 
panded with their expansion and developed with 
their development. But before taking the initial 
steps they did not wait to analyze the entire situation 
and upon logical or philosophical grounds map it out 
in its entirety. They had no such thought. They 
needed ministers of the Gospel and, since a knowledge 
of Latin was the one sure gateway to that profes- 
sion, they established a Latin school almost as soon 



The University and the High Schools 65 

as they had set their own dwelling places in order. 
This was in 1635, and Harvard College followed the 
very next year to complete the preparation. It was 
an afterthought and came eleven years later when 
they legislated for an elementary school. And even 
tho we can see, in what they had then produced, the 
fundamental factors of our present somewhat com- 
plicated system, the people who were responsible for 
its organization were only dimly conscious of the 
significance of it all. They builded better than they 
knew. The broad outlines can not be improved. 
Details, of course, are ever changing as local con- 
ditions change, but from the very nature of things, 
the elementary, the secondary, and the higher schools 
have remained with us, each for a quite definite pur- 
pose and all working together for a common end. 
Let us look, therefore, for a moment, at each of 
the three and see for what it stands and what it 
should attempt to do. 



The Elementary School 

The fundamental purpose of the elementary school 
in a democracy is well stated in the first legislation 
on the continent touching elementary education, tho 
not mentioning the elementary school. It was in 
the Massachusetts colonies in 1642. The General 
Court passed an ordinance of which the following 
quotation gives the substance : 

"This Court, taking into consideration the great 
neglect of many parents and masters in the training 
of their children in labor and learning, and other em- 
ployments which may be profitable to the common- 
wealth, do hereupon order and decree that in every 



66 On the Firing Line in Education 

town the chosen men appointed for managing the 
prudential affairs of the same shall henceforth stand 
charged with the care of the redress of this evil 
. . . and for this end they, or the greater num- 
ber of them, shall have the power to take ac- 
count, from time to time, of all parents and masters, 
and of their children, concerning their calling and 
employment of their children, especially of their 
ability to read and understand the principles of 
religion and the capital laws of this country; and 
they shall have power ... to put forth as appren- 
tices the children of such as they shall find not to 
be able and fit to employ and to bring them up." 

Here was compulsory elementary education, that 
children might know how to read, might "understand 
the principles of religion and the capital laws of the 
State," and also that they might be taught to work. 
And why? For their own present and future wel- 
fare, and that they might be "profitable to the com- 
monwealth," the document reads. 

It was for all the children of all the people. The 
same thought is with us to-day and, analyzed and 
stated in our present-day terminology, may be put 
about as follows: 

The elementary school is for all the people and 
aims to do for all three things : first, exercise a posi- 
tive directive influence over the child's physical de- 
velopment; second, carry on, in a more systematic, 
scientific manner the training of the sense organs 
already begun by the home, thus opening up the life 
to the beauties of nature, art, and other forms of 
truth, and so providing for the development of the 
inner life of each in accordance with inherent leaning 
and capability ; and, third, equip them with the tools 



The University and the High Schools 67 

of knowledge and give such knowledge facts and 
develop such points of view as will enable each to be- 
come a self-directing, constructive, and contributing 
member of his democratic community. 

Attendance upon the elementary school should, 
in the interests of all as individuals and of the State 
as an organization, be compulsory. 

The High School 

The high school should likewise be for all, tho for 
a somewhat different purpose. While attendance 
should not be compulsory, the aim should be to make 
it universal. For a somewhat different purpose, I 
said; I should perhaps have said for an added pur- 
pose, because I would have the three ends of the 
elementary school kept constantly in view as funda- 
mental bases. But, assuming that these things have 
been well done, the chief purpose of the high school 
should be to discover the child's latent powers, his 
dominant interests, and then, so far as these are 
wholesome, help him plan his education in their gen- 
eral direction. I might put it briefly thus : the chief 
function of the high school should be to help the child 
to become acquainted with himself and begin the 
planning of his future. Let us look at it carefully 
and see if it is not sound. 

At the conclusion of the elementary school, at the 
age of 14, the boys and girls are still children; they 
are developing, not developed, in either body of 
mind. They have not yet reached, in the main, the 
period of rapid acceleration of physical growth, in- 
tellectual expansion, or moral development; they are 
just reaching it; they are now in the early stages of 



68 On the Firing Line in Education 

that wonderful period of adolescence when the boy is 
being transformed into the man and the girl into 
the woman. They are neither children nor adults, 
yet manifesting the characteristics of both. They 
do not know themselves, nor does any one else know 
them intimately. How can they? They are not yet 
formed. They are in the process of formation. 
What will emerge as a result of the process, we 
know only in broad outlines — not at all in minute 
detail. So many factors are at work and there 
are possible so many combinations of factors that 
no one can tell; for it is during the period of ado- 
lescence that hereditary characteristics show them- 
selves. Up to this time the child is a child of the 
race; during this period it becomes the offspring of 
its parents. And the factors of heredity — father, 
mother, ancestry — are mingling and clashing and 
combining with the factors of environment, and 
what the outcome is going to be, nobody knows, in 
specific cases, in advance. 

This is the period when the heart, the lungs, and' 
the brain are being transformed, modified, whipt into 
shape for the performance of the duties of adulthood. 
It is a period when, in the intellectual realm, because 
of what is taking place in the physical, concepts are 
being clarified, relationships traced, ideas formed, 
things seen in the right perspective, and real reason- 
ing begun. It is the period when, in the moral field, 
because of what is being accomplished in the physi- 
cal and the intellectual, principles are being appre- 
hended that will finally enable the individual to dis- 
tinguish between right and wrong, to organize on 
principle rather than upon expediency his relation- 
ships with his fellows, and eventually to become a 



The University and the High Schools 69 

free moral agent, self-controlled and self-directed. 
It is the period, therefore, when ideals are being 
formed, habits fixt, character shaped, life plans ma- 
tured, and professions chosen. 

And so, with such an individual and during such 
a period, what other function of the high school can 
begin to compare, either in importance or in appro- 
priateness, with the one stated? 

It may be objected that I do not include in this 
function of the high school that which has been dur- 
ing a large portion of its history its foremost work 
— preparation for college. The seeming omission has 
not been accidental. I say the seeming omission be- 
cause, even tho not specifically stated, it is there, for 
all who should be encouraged to prepare for college. 
But it has not been made prominent since, in my 
judgment, it is of minor importance. Note again 
the function as suggested — to help the child know 
himself, find out what he wants to do and what he 
can do best, and then begin getting ready for doing 
it well. If the specific form of future activity de- 
cided upon in a particular instance should call for 
the contribution of the college, then of course the 
plan mentioned would include appropriate prepara- 
tion. 

But from what point of view should the high 
school be regarded and for whom should it be 
planned? Should it be for the relatively few who 
go beyond, or for the great majority who do not? 
It is a fair question and admits of but one answer. 
The high schools of the State must, of course, give 
adequate preparation for entrance into the State 
university. Some of them must — not necessarily 
every one. It must be the preparatory school, since 



70 On the Firing Line in Education 

both are State institutions and the only ones occupy- 
ing the field. But it should do vastly more than that. 
Being of the people, by the people, and for the people, 
it should be so handled as to serve all, not merely 
a few, of the people. It is perfectly plain, there- 
fore, where the emphasis should be placed. 

Please do not misunderstand me ; I am not looking 
upon this from any narrow point of view, I am not 
thinking merely of getting these children ready for 
jobs — certainly not all of them. I am not advocat- 
ing the transforming of our high schools into trade 
schools — not at all. What I am urging primarily 
is a different point of view — and so enlarging and 
modifying our high school activities and equipment 
that all our children, instead of only a few, may find 
there a congenial atmosphere and activities suited to 
their tastes. If their tastes lie in the direction of 
carpentering, or of plumbing, or of dress-making, 
well and good ; let them be thus developed and pre- 
pared to go out into their community somewhat 
equipt for remunerative toil and for community 
service. Why not? Are they not as worthy as those 
who have tastes and ambitions of a more literary 
character and who, therefore, look forward to the 
chair of the teacher, the office of the lawyer, or the 
practise of a physician? And is not the community 
under as much obligation to the one as to the other? 
Some fear that such a program would lessen the 
number preparing for college, that work of this ob- 
jective character would be so attractive that all 
would choose it. These fears are groundless. Chil- 
dren are not all built that way. At any rate it 
would not lessen the number who ought to go to 
college — who are adapted to that kind of work. It 



The University and the High Schools 71 

would, of course, greatly increase the number at- 
tending high schools — holding those who now, be- 
cause of lack of interest in the work offered, drop 
out of school entirely and thus swell the ranks of 
unskilled and unintelligent labor. And that is 
greatly worth while. My own feeling is, too, that 
out of the greatly increased attendance of the high 
school an even larger number than at present would 
find their way to the university, and that they would 
be better equipt in point of view and purpose than 
are many who enter under present conditions. This 
suggestion is made not to keep boys and girls out of 
the university, but to send them there with a purpose. 
But there is oftentimes a misapprehension as to 
these two possible programs for the high schools. 
Preparation for college and preparation for life are 
by no means antagonistic. Preparation for college 
is the only kind of preparation for life for him who 
goes to college. And for him who, during his high 
school course, plans to go to college, but who at its 
close, finds himself unable to do so, for economic or 
other reasons, it should still be the best possible 
preparation for life that he could have made, and it 
will be if, as I am urging, it has all the time been 
based upon his own nature and seeking his normal 
development in the direction of his dominant inter- 
ests. And preparation for life should be the very 
best kind of preparation for college, for him who 
later changes his plans and goes to college as well 
as for him who does not, since the college itself should 
be regarded as merely completing preparation for 
life. But a great many, the majority, no doubt, will 
not go to college, should not go to college, or to put 
it better, perhaps, need not go to college. The activ- 



12 On the Firing Line in Education 

ities of life, psychical as well as manual, for 
which they are best adapted by native endowment, 
and in the performance of which they will, therefore, 
be happiest, and thru which they will, therefore, con- 
tribute most to the welfare of society, do not need 
for their satisfactory performance school prepara- 
tion beyond the high school period. In other words, 
a great many boys and girls should not be urged to 
go to college. They should not if they do not have 
within them those characteristics of leadership which, 
developed, will make them leaders. The college grad- 
uate who, in later life, is a street car conductor, or 
a Pullman porter, or what-not, has largely wasted 
the time and money spent in college. And this is not 
because these occupations are not honorable, but 
because they do not call for that kind of prepara- 
tion. And the kind of an individual who is at home 
as a street car conductor does not usually profit 
greatly by the work of the college. I will not put 
it as David Starr Jordan is said to have done, that 
"It does not pay to give a fifty-cent boy a five thou- 
sand dollar education." It is not a question of dol- 
lars and cents — rather one of fitness and of fitting. 
The so-called "fifty-cent boy" who may have been 
given the "five thousand dollar education" and be- 
cause of its inappropriateness degenerated into a 
ten-cent man, might have been made into a thousand 
dollar man if he had been given the right kind of 
education. The boy who has the instincts of a 
blacksmith, who likes the shaping of iron and the 
shoeing of horses and the smell of the forge, will be 
a far happier and more useful member of society as 
a blacksmith than, made over by the college, as a 



The University and the High Schools 73 

lawyer without clients, a physician without patients, 
or a teacher always hunting a new position. 

I have discust the high school, as you see, from 
the point of view of the developmental needs of the 
children of the community. The outcome would 
have been practically the same had I looked upon it 
from the standpoint of the industrial needs of the 
community. I fully believe that a high school should 
be to-day just what it was originally planned to be 
back there in the first half of the nineteenth century 
— a school higher than the elementary, controlled by 
the community, in co-operation with the educational 
leaders of the State, serving the needs of the com- 
munity, fitting its boys and girls for service in the 
community and discriminating, if at all, in the favor 
of the group of boys and girls who are not going to 
college, since that group is much the larger. Since 
boys and girls are nearer to us than industrial needs, 
I have chosen to look at the problem from that angle. 

I am well aware that my point of view in this 
entire matter is not quite in accord with the present- 
day program. The American high school still has 
preparation for college as the one dominant object. 
Its curriculum is planned for that end. It is rated 
at first, second, or third class, depending upon the 
degree in which it meets college entrance require- 
ments — not upon the degree in which it serves the 
community needs or develops the community's chil- 
dren. 

I realize fully that the change suggested would 
involve quite a decided rearrangement of the ordi- 
nary high school program. With the time at my 
disposal it will be impossible to discuss the matter in 



74 On the Firing Line in Education 

detail, but it should be touched upon briefly to get 
the matter of relationship clearly before us. 

The first change would be in the matter of organi- 
zation: instead of having the elementary school, as 
now, covering eight years and closing with the child 
at the age of 14, it should cover but six years, send- 
ing the child to the high school at about the age of 
12, at which time, approximately, begin those physi- 
cal and psychological changes earlier spoken of, as 
belonging to adolescence. And that thought has 
taken root, as we all know, in the junior high school 
movement. Six years is long enough to do well all 
that the elementary school should be expected to do. 
It certainly is as long as children can be held inter- 
ested in the kind of work thought necessary for the 
child, and as long as he can be happy in the atmos- 
phere of the ordinary elementary school. It is long 
enough for the laying of foundations. It is time 
something else should be taken up. 

Planning to meet the needs of adolescents, we must 
take the adolescents as they are — many of them not 
primarily students of books, but individuals of cease- 
less activity, physical as well as mental, vastly more 
interested in the doing of things than in the learning 
of lessons. And we must provide a means whereby 
they can learn to do all sorts of things that have 
to be done in the community. The subject matter, 
the methods of handling young life, the atmosphere, 
the activities, and the ends in view, should be so 
changed or modified, or supplemented as to be ap- 
propriate to the new and changing personalities to 
be affected by them. The details would differ with 
different communities but the principle is adaptable 
to all. 



The University and the High Schools 75 



The State University 

With the functions of these two departments thus 
clearly in mind, let us look at the next in order — the 
State university. Fortunately this discussion need 
not detain us long since there is a quite well recog- 
nized unanimity of opinion in regard to its work. 

While the State university does many things, and 
some of them well, and while it can be said to have 
many ends in view, its one all-inclusive function is to 
prepare leaders for society. It must prepare leaders 
in law, that justice may be done; leaders in medicine 
that health may be preserved ; leaders in engineering 
that the State's resources may be developed ; leaders 
in education that the youth of the State may be 
educated; leaders in research that the boundaries of 
knowledge may be pushed out — leaders ail along the 
line that character may be formed, statesman- 
ship developed, and the welfare of the people secured 
and preserved. And the preparation of all these is 
not, primarily, that those prepared may achieve 
fame or amass fortunes, but that society may be 
better served. 

We are all agreed, in the United States, that ele- 
mentary education should be universal. Many are 
now taking the position that I have already advanced 
that secondary education should likewise reach and 
serve all. But all stop at that point. No one even 
suggests a college education for every boy and girl. 
And the reason is found in the above statement of 
the function of the institution, since not all are 
suited to leadership. It takes only the relatively 
few who stand out clearly in their high school experi- 



76 On the Firing Line in Education 

ences as possessing the characteristics of leadership, 
and these few it develops, equips, locates. 

Coming a little closer to our subject — tho I think 
we have not been very far from it at any time — let 
us inquire as to this relationship along some more 
specific lines. 

It goes without saying that the relationship 
should be very cordial. The two institutions are 
creatures of the State, partners in the important 
work of educating the children of the State. Each 
has its own work to do, and neither has been given 
any authority over the other. At the same time each 
depends upon the other, neither being able to do its 
own work without the other's assistance. They 
should work hand in hand, each assisting the other 
in every possible way to realize its largest usefulness 
to the community and the State. In general, the high 
school should send its students to the university well 
equipt to do the lines of work for which they respec- 
tively apply. And the university, knowing in each 
case just what that work is to be, and the difficulties 
it presents, should be the judge as to the details of 
that equipment. 

On the other hand, the university should not make 
requirements for beginning its work that are beyond 
the capacity of the ordinary high school student. 
Nor should it definitely require or legislate against 
specific subjects upon which there is no general 
agreement among educational leaders. Something 
is wrong somewhere, in the matter of educational 
values, when some colleges absolutely prescribe for 
entrance certain subjects for which others will give 
no credit at all : for example, at the present time 91 
colleges in the United States require at least one 



The University and the High Schools 77 

unit of natural science and 8 colleges will not accept 
a single unit; again, 13 require 2 units of natural 
science and 22 will not accept the two. Until we 
know a little better than we do at present what we 
are doing and why we are doing it, it might be well 
to move slowly in legislating for or against specific 
subjects. The university should keep in mind the 
fact that the high school has other duties to perform 
— and possibly more important ones — than prepar- 
ing a few students for the university. 

I am glad to say that in this matter of entrance 
requirements the two institutions are gradually com- 
ing closer together. The university is coming to 
have greater respect for and more confidence in the 
high school and its work. Whereas in the earlier 
days all entrance work was rigidly prescribed, now, 
in nearly all of our higher institutions, several units 
are open to free choice from a list of accepted sub- 
jects. In a goodly number these units may be chosen 
from any subjects offered by an approved high 
school. And, too, there are five institutions of good 
standing that allow the entire 15 units to be thus 
chosen. Our own, as you doubtless know, is much 
more generous in this matter than the great major- 
ity. It gives a margin of 5 units to be thus selected. 
I think there are but 9 institutions in the whole coun- 
try more liberal. As you know, too, in all our col- 
leges save Engineering we specifically require but 4 
units — 3 in English and 1 in mathematics. From 
the others free election among groups is allowed. 
The movement here and elsewhere seems to be in the 
direction of requiring the completion of a full four- 
year high school course, with increasing flexibility as 
to specific subjects. And that seems wise. 



78 On the Firing Line in Education 

It gives me pleasure, at this point, to say that the 
relationship between the University of North Dakota 
and the high schools of the State has ever been most 
cordial. I think there has never been a time when 
the two, tho differing at times in details, have not co- 
operated in the most frank and cordial manner to 
bring about the best good of both and to secure the 
best service to the State. Neither one has been 
selfish, trying to secure undue advantage over the 
other. Where domination of the university over the 
high school can be seen — as it most certainly can be 
seen — and even tho, as I have said, the work of the 
high school is what it ought not to be — mainly a 
preparation for the university — this University and 
these high schools are not at fault. It is not a local 
situation. It is nation-wide, and even nation-wide 
as it is, it does not include, consciously and directly, 
the State universities. The older colleges and uni- 
versities did dominate, but the relation between the 
State university and the high school has ever been 
cordial. They have always recognized their partner- 
ship and have acted in accordance with it. But yet 
we have all been caught in the maelstrom, and it 
would be difficult for any one institution or any one 
State to get out of it. So no immediate or rapid 
change can be expected. Large bodies move slowly. 
The change will come, but it will come gradually thru 
claiming a little here and granting a little there. 

But before leaving this topic of entrance require- 
ments, I desire to refer to one of its broad factors 
and touch, incidentally, upon the large matter of 
university attendance in general. In discussing the 
high school, and again the university, I have tried 
to make clear the fact that not all high school stu- 



The University and the High Schools 79 

dents should be urged or expected to go on to the 
university. Remember that the high schools should 
be made to serve all the youth of the State but that 
the university's work is to take but the choice ones 
of these, or, better yet, the scholarly out-put of the 
high schools, and equip them for leadership in 
society, and the point is clear. It is a new problem 
but coming to be a very real one. Going to college 
is getting to be the fashion — almost a fad in some 
places. We all know that a goodly number of stu- 
dents, boys and girls alike, enter the universities, 
East and West, every year who have no character- 
istics of leadership, who are not fitted for real uni- 
versity work, either in academic equipment, maturity 
of judgment, point of view, or earnestness of pur- 
pose. Many of these young people are wholly 
worthy, well meaning, and ambitious in a weak way, 
but they have been misguided. They have listened 
to the attractive preaching of the popular but un- 
intelligent gospel of college attendance for all and, 
caught by the glamor — the foot-ball, the track meet, 
the declamation contest, the fraternity pin, the 
Junior prom, etc. — have answered the hail of "All 
aboard for the University!" without knowing what 
university work really is or what it is for. 

The college and the university are also coming to 
be thought a convenient place for rich fathers to 
dump their incorrigible sons and marriageable 
daughters for a few years. And in some sections 
these rich fathers are increasing in numbers at an 
alarming rate. The presence of all such people 
(they can not be called students) in various classes 
is a drag, and the wheels of the institution are 
clogged. These people themselves are soon disillu- 



80 On the Firing Line in Education 

sioned but ashamed to quit ; the home people are dis- 
satisfied with results; the university is unjustly 
blamed for not developing them into leaders — there 
is trouble all around. I am not speaking of our 
own institution alone ; others are experiencing the 
same difficulty and are seeking a way out. Michigan 
University, for example, is now urging its alumni 
to discriminate carefully in sending students to their 
Alma Mater ; it wants only those fitted by nature as 
well as by the preparatory school. 

As said above, this is coming to be a real prob- 
lem and difficult of solution. What shall be the re- 
lationship of the university to the high school touch- 
ing these various classes of its graduates? Should 
it receive them all? If not, where shall the line be 
drawn? And who shall draw it? Shall one factor 
of the entrance requirements be the recommendation 
of the high school principal or superintendent? 
Would it be well for the high school to have two 
distinct grades : one for local graduation and a 
higher for university entrance? That is done in 
some places. The entire matter is worthy of careful 
thought of both high school and university. 

With the discussion of one more point of contact, 
the preparation of teachers for the high schools, I 
am thru. 

If, as stated above, the great function of the State 
university is to provide leaders for society, then, in 
a broad way it is easy to answer the question as to 
what it should do for the preparation of teachers 
for high schools — it should prepare them. For where 
else is clear-headed, unselfish leadership more needed 
than in the high schools from the students of which 
are being selected, thru direction and competition, 



The University and the High Schools 81 

the boys and girls who are to pass out to the colleges 
and then into the world as leaders? We all know 
that that is what happens. The man or woman, un- 
touched by college or university, who yet occupies a 
responsible position of leadership is an exception to 
the rule. And where else than in a university can 
preparation for high school teaching be secured? 
But of what sort should be this preparation? The 
answer to the question in general has long been 
clear — it should be professional as well as academic 
in character. Mere acquaintance with the subject 
to be taught is no longer held adequate by people 
at all intelligent along educational lines. And dur- 
ing the progress of the movement that has demon- 
strated to us the need of professional preparation, 
there has been worked out also, along somewhat 
general lines, the details of this preparation. We 
are now, the country over, in approximate agreement 
that it should cover the History of Education, 
Philosophy of Education, Psychology, including the 
study of adolescence, and Methods of Teaching. In- 
stitutions differ somewhat in minor matters within 
these broad fields, but the development of the move- 
ment in the United States has resulted in approxi- 
mately the above program — professional prepara- 
tion for all teachers in the high school and that 
along the four lines suggested. But the movement 
has gone much farther than suggested by my state- 
ment. The results are found in something more 
authoritative and more permanent than tentative 
agreement among educational leaders, or even among 
educational institutions. The law-making bodies of 
the land have taken a part, and by legal enactment 
have required about what I have suggested. The 



82 On the Firing Line in Education 

State of North Dakota, for example, requires pro- 
fessional equipment of every teacher within its bor- 
ders — no, not quite, it does not require it of its 
teachers in the special schools — the reform school, 
the schools for the deaf, blind, and the feeble minded 
— nor in its institutions of higher education, includ- 
ing the normal schools and the University. And in 
this North Dakota does not differ from other states 
of the Union. But it is strange, isn't it? that the 
state absolutely requires professional preparation of 
all its elementary and secondary teachers and yet 
does not require it of those whom it engages to 
equip them? Some of them have it, of course, and 
the majority of those who give the specifically pro- 
fessional courses, but the greater number of all 
teachers in the higher institutions are lacking in 
this respect. That doesn't mean that all university 
teachers are poor teachers. Many of them have 
learned how to teach in the crude and expensive 
school of experience. They have, at last, the pro- 
fessional equipment, but gained at high cost. Per- 
haps this lack of professional equipment accounts, in 
a mesure, for the admittedly poor character of 
much of the teaching in our colleges, normal schools, 
and universities. 

But to come back to the high school and the prepa- 
ration of high school teachers. What does North 
Dakota require, and how does the University meet 
the requirement? 

All teachers in classified high schools, save special 
teachers of music and drawing, are required to hold 
certificates that presuppose proficiency in psychol- 
ogy, history of education, principles of education, 
school administration, and methods. Special teach- 



The University and the High Schools 83 

ers in music and drawing are required to have cov- 
ered in professional lines only psychology and 
pedagogy. But in cases where the certificate is 
granted on the basis of college work instead of on 
results of an examination, the law requires that the 
applicant shall have covered at least two year- 
courses, or sixteen semester hours, of professional 
work, and it recommends that this be distributed 
among the four great fields : history of education, 
principles of education, methods of teaching, and 
school management. 

The School of Education has been organized 
within the University for the specific purpose of pre- 
paring teachers for the high schools of the State. 
To graduate from the School of Education and thus 
receive the B. A. degree and the Bachelor's Diploma 
in teaching, which is accredited by law as a first- 
grade professional certificate, and also to be recom- 
mended for teaching specific subjects in the high- 
school, an applicant is required, first, to have special- 
ized, academically, in the subject to be taught. The 
amount of work required for this specializing varies 
with the different subjects, but in most cases it is 
from 20 to 24 semester hours. Recall what is meant 
by the work of a semester hour and you will easily 
see how broad our academic requirement is. It 
means that in addition to one's high school work he 
is required to carry the subject in practically daily 
recitation for from 2% to 3 years in the University. 
To some that may seem too much, but we feel that 
the first requirement for teaching in the high school 
should be a thoro grounding in the subjects to be 
taught. 

The academic matter thus disposed of, let us note 



84 On the Firing Line in Education 

the professional. For this, in its various phases, we 
require 20 semester hours covering psychology, his- 
tory of education, secondary education, philosophy 
of education, and methods of teaching academic 
subjects in which the student has been specializing 
and which he expects to teach. The course in 
methods includes observation and practise teaching 
of the same subjects in the Model High School under 
expert supervision. Many of our students volun- 
tarily take more than 20 hours, but that is all that is 
required. We have cut down the professional re- 
quirement to the minimum so as to leave ample op- 
portunity within the course for thoro mastery of 
the subjects to be taught, and also for general cul- 
ture and the development of broad-mindedness, not 
being willing to send teachers into the high schools 
as narrow specialists. 

Were there time I should like to go more into 
detail in regard to these various requirements and 
try to show the contribution of each; but I must 
pass on to speak of another way by means of which 
the University enables students to meet the legal 
requirements for teaching in the high schools — thru 
the College of Arts. A student who graduates from 
the College of Arts and who has had, during the 
progress of this course, 16 hours of Education is, 
upon application to the State Board of Education 
and the payment of a fee of $5, granted a first grade 
professional certificate. But this method of prepa- 
ration is seen to be quite unsatisfactory when con- 
trasted with the one just outlined. The Arts student 
is a relatively free lance, practically wholly so in 
the choice and arrangements of his professional work. 
In the School of Education the program is for all 



The University and the High Schools 85 

the professional subjects, save general psychology, 
to be taken after the beginning of the junior year 
and so immediately prior to the actual work of 
teaching, and too, when the student is relatively 
mature. But with the Arts student, it may all be 
taken much earlier, during relative immaturity and 
making a long period elapse between it and the work 
of teaching — quite long enough for the influence of 
the professional atmosphere, always valuable in 
such matters, to be wholly lost. The question of the 
professional work of the School of Education student 
is carefully planned to meet the ends in view. Each 
course has its definite contribution. The Arts 
student may, and often does, select courses that are 
not the most appropriate for high school teaching: 
for example, instead of a course in adolescence he 
may select one in child study which deals only with 
the child in the grades. Instead of a special 
methods course in the subjects he plans to teach in 
high school, he may select a course in methods in 
elementary subjects ; and he may not take any course 
in secondary education nor have any practise teach- 
ing in the Model High School. The work may be — 
quite often is — ill-arranged and of little value as a 
professional preparation for high school teacher. 

I have dwelt upon this contrast because the Uni- 
versity and its School of Education has suffered by 
the laxness of this second mode of preparation. 
Some of the people who thus go out are not good 
representative products of the institution's profes- 
sional activity. 

Just a closing word as to this phase of the sub^ 
ject. You see what we are trying to do and how we 
are trying to do it. From the work of the young 



86 On the Firing Line in Education 

people whom we have sent you from time to time, how 
successful have we been? Our work as to time and 
content of courses and our general equipment are 
about the same as found in similar institutions in 
other states. We differ somewhat, of course, in 
personalities and in individual point of view but, 
taking everything together, we are doing the best we 
know how with the material that you send us as 
students. How does our product suit you? What 
criticism have you to make and what changes to 
suggest ? 



Ill 

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE TEACHER 



An Address delivered at the University of Manitoba, 
Winnipeg, Canada, March 30, 1916, in the 
Exchange Lectureship existing between the 
University of Manitoba and the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota. It was 
printed in the "American 
Schoolmaster," Decem- 
ber, 1916 



Ill 

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE TEACHER 

HAVING accepted the kind invitation of the 
University of Manitoba to be one of the ex- 
change lecturers from the University of North 
Dakota, for the current year, I made inquiry as to 
the nature of the different groups of people whom I 
should be expected to address. I did this so as to be 
able to select appropriate themes for discussion. 

For this gathering, therefore, semi-popular in 
character and made up, as I was told it would be, of 
the more thoughtful and intelligent people of the 
community, University, and city, I selected as my 
topic for discussion, "The University and the 
Teacher." 

To a group of educated men and women who have 
visions — people who are characteristically looking 
beyond the present and trying to plan for the devel- 
opment of a great democratic state and for the 
welfare of a free people, I know of no line of thought 
more appropriate or suggestive. This is true be- 
cause in such a state and with such a people, the 
state or provincial university is the recognized 
leader of thought and action. And this is true 
since the one great function of such an insti- 
tution is to take the choice youth and maidens from 
the various sections of the state and, thru the work 
of the class room day in and day out, week by week, 

89 



90 On the Firing Line in Education 

year after year, give them knowledge, shape their 
opinions, mold their characters, and develop their 
minds, and then send them back into society as rec- 
ognized leaders of the next generation. 

The topic is doubly suggestive when we stop to 
inquire as to what makes a university or any other 
institution of learning — what it is that really gives it 
its reputation, its character, its influence. What is 
it, anyway? Its towering brick walls? Its libraries 
and its laboratories ? Its athletic prowess ? Its beau- 
tiful campus ? Why, no, of course not. Not any one 
of these nor all of them combined, complete and ex- 
tended and excellent as they may be, or as useful as 
they all are, ever yet made or ever can make a great 
university. A real university, or any other institu- 
tion of learning, is made up of the men and the 
women who form its student and its teaching bodies. 
The character of the institution, its very life blood, 
is drawn from them. Their points of view, their 
motives, their scholarships, their visions, their as- 
pirations, make it what it is in every instance. 

You recall that ex-President Garfield's description 
of a, university included only two factors as essen- 
tial — the teacher and the student. The external 
equipment — buildings, libraries, laboratories — what 
not — is merely a tool in their hands. Please do not 
misunderstand me. I am not inveighing against 
these things; they are necessary. What I am in- 
sisting upon is that not things but teachers make a 
university. And so my topic, "The University and 
the Teacher," launches us at once into the midst of 
a great big thought. So big, indeed, it is, that it 
goes without saying that it cannot be adequately 
handled in the brief space of a single address. Only 



The University and the Teacher 91 

certain phases of the large topic can be touched upon 
at all, and they treated but briefly. 

But, after all, the function of a speaker, certainly 
upon such an occasion as this, is not merely to give 
information. It is not to speak with finality upon 
any subject. Is it not, rather, to direct the thoughts 
of the listeners along worthy lines? For any good 
that shall result from the meeting together of 
speaker and audience will be the direct outcome of 
their thoughts and not of his words. So, after hav- 
ing thus spoken briefly of the university as a whole — 
of its place in the state, its great influence and that 
of its teaching body — I invite you to think with me 
as I touch the subject here and there briefly dis- 
cussing these three sub-topics: 1. The Kind of 
Teachers the University should Employ; 2. The 
University Teacher in His Classroom; 3. The Uni- 
versity's Attitude Toward the Preparation of 
Teachers. Our first discussion, then, will be of 

The Kind of Teachers the University Should 
Employ 

A few moments ago I said that the one great 
function of a State University was to provide the 
State with a competent leadership. That involves, 
however, a subsidiary function of such great im- 
portance, especially as we regard the teaching force, 
that an added word is needed both to prevent mis- 
understanding and to make clear the line of discus- 
sion of this sub-topic. The development of a compe- 
tent leadership is the all-embracing function of such 
an institution, but that can not be done save as the 
institution is, at the same time, thru some or all of 



92 On the Firing Line in Education 

its teachers, keeping fully abreast, or well in the 
lead, of the discovery of new knowledge and of new 
applications of knowledge in the various fields of 
human endeavor. And this is true because men can 
not be leaders in any field of action unless they 
possess the fullest and latest items of knowledge 
obtainable in that particular field, and again because 
real leadership can not be developed save thru the 
use, as educative material, of the fullest and latest. 

What kind of teachers should the university em- 
ploy? Clearly, teachers who can do these two 
things : men of open and enquiring minds, men of 
imagination, men who are hungry and thirsty for 
knowledge, men of research — men of the laboratory 
and the library. But that is but one side; we must 
also have men of vision, men of great breadth of 
view, men of broad human sympathies, men who can 
take this knowledge, old and new, and with it, as 
educative material, help to shape opinions, and 
mold characters, and fashion destinies, thus trans- 
forming crude, unstable, and immature youth into 
men and women of virtue, and knowledge, and cour- 
age, and sanity, and poise, into whose trust, there- 
fore, can be placed the guiding of a great, free, 
developing people — men of the classroom, teachers 
and inspirers of youth. 

The question may well be asked if I mean two 
groups of teachers, a research group and a teaching 
group, neither one acting within the field of the other. 
Not necessarily and certainly not absolutely. To 
quite an extent the two functions should overlap 
since each supplements the other. The man of re- 
search should also be a teacher in order both to keep 
his human sympathies alive and as a spur to still 



The University and the Teacher 93 

further search. And every teacher should be, to 
some extent, a man of research so that thru his own 
joy in discovery he will be able to kindle a like fire 
in the minds of others, thus keeping the spirit of 
discovery alive and active in the land, and also that 
he may invite his students to drink at a living stream 
instead of a stagnant pool. The teacher who is not 
also a student, and continually working at it, is 
usually but a poor teacher. But while all this is 
true, it is probably true also that no person is 
equally successful in both fields. Some men are 
primarily teachers — are in their element in the class- 
room engaged with the problems of the student but 
only indifferently successful in the laboratory, while 
others, at home in the laboratory, are somewhat out 
of place and ill-at-ease in the classroom. I shall not 
attempt to say which of the two functions is the more 
important or the more useful. Both are needed and, 
as said before, both are needed, to some extent, in 
each. But, in the main, where characteristics are 
marked, the shoemaker should be allowed to stick to 
his last. It is a very wise procedure that is more 
and more being followed at the present time, in 
American universities, of recognizing such differences 
and making provision for research professorships 
that include no teaching duties whatever. The per- 
centage of these should be small, of course. 

What kind of a teacher should the university em- 
ploy, then? The teacher who is eager to push the 
boundaries of human knowledge a little beyond the 
point yet reached and who also greatly desires to 
take knowledge as an instrument and with it develop 
boys and girls and equip them for leadership in the 
great world of action. So far as possible the two 



94 On the Firing Line in Education 

kinds of service should be performed by the same 
person, but yet that is immaterial — the material 
thing being that both kinds be performed. 

What kind of teachers should the university em- 
ploy? Why, teachers who not only desire to do 
these two things, but who also know how to do them. 
If one is to do research work, he should know how 
to do it, economically and efficiently. His prepara- 
tion should have included a certain amount of re- 
flection upon the reasons for research and of train- 
ing in the manner of conducting the same. Likewise, 
if he is to be a teacher, he should be well grounded in 
the theory and art of teaching. If he is going to 
shape opinions, mold character, give points of view, 
develop human minds, then it goes without saying 
that his preparation should have included a very 
thoro study of the human mind in its various rela- 
tionships, activities, and stages of development. If 
a teacher is expected to equip young men and women 
for the duties of life as leaders in the great social, 
economic, and political activities, he must also 
possess great stores of knowledge, and likewise know 
how to impart that knowledge so that it will become 
equally the possession of others. 

The University Teacher in His Classroom 

The second of my three topics, "The University 
Teacher in His Classroom," is an even more intimate 
one than the one just treated. It is so intimate that 
perhaps discretion would be the better part of valor, 
but since I am at a considerable distance from the 
people and the institutions I am discussing, I feel 
that I can proceed with comparative safety. 



The University and the Teacher 95 

There is abroad at the present time considerable 
hostile criticism of our higher education. Our grad- 
uates, it is said, are not able "to connect up"; "it 
takes them two or three years after they get out to 
find themselves" ; "they first have to get rid of a lot 
of theoretical notions that have been given them 
before they can learn the practical things of life." 
President Foster of Reed College, Oregon, puts it 
thus: "It is possible to graduate from almost any 
college without an idea in one's head." Professor 
Wenley, Head of the Department of Philosophy in 
Michigan University, had about the same thought 
when he gave me his original definition of an Ameri- 
can college as "A so-called institution of higher 
learning whose chief accomplishment is the inocula- 
tion of innocent youth against education." Or shall 
we put it in the words of our friend Mr. Dooley: 
"Nowadays when a lad goes to college, the prisidint 
takes him into a Turkish room, gives him a cigareet 
an' says : Me dear boy, what special branch iv larnin 
wud ye like to have studied f'r ye be our compitint 
perf essors ?" 

Such are some of the caustic remarks that we oc- 
casionally hear. Of course the situation is always 
exaggerated in such criticisms; but, as the old saw 
puts it, "Where there's so much smoke, there must be 
some fire." Where does the trouble lie? All sorts 
of guesses have been made, and some careful investi- 
gations entered into in an effort to discover the 
cause. The outcome of all such consideration, so 
far as I am able to learn, throws the responsibility 
upon the teacher rather than upon the institution 
as a whole, and upon his teaching ability rather than 
upon any lack of knowledge. We cannot teach, it 



96 On the Firing Line in Education 

is said. In spite of the knowledge that we possess, 
we do not know how to present that knowledge so 
that another can gain it. Nicholas Murray Butler, 
the brainy President of Columbia University, says, 
"The teaching of many very famous men [in colleges 
and universities] is distinctly poor; sometimes it is 
even worse." 

These are rather interesting statements and 
worthy of thought. What is meant by teaching, 
anyway? Teaching involves a double process and 
two persons, both active upon the same matter. Both 
must be successful for either to be. Teaching is 
causing to learn, and when there is no learning, there 
can have been no teaching. "Learning is not merely 
the correlative idea of teaching, but is one of its con- 
stituent elements." No matter how much an in- 
structor may know, no matter how much he may say 
nor what he may do, if he doesn't cause the student 
to put forth those mental activities that result in 
learning, he doesn't teach. And it is claimed that, 
in many cases, our university instructors do not 
know how to do this. He knows but he does not know 
how to cause another to know, is a common criti- 
cism. 

I suppose it is true, tho loyalty makes me rather 
dislike to admit it, that with us the poorest teaching 
in our entire educational system is done in colleges 
and universities. My own observation both as a 
student and as a teacher all along the line leads me 
to say that, in the main, our best teaching is done in 
the elementary grades, second best in the high 
schools, and poorest in the higher institutions. An- 
other puts it thus : "We have excellent teaching in 
the lower primary grades and in the graduate 



The University and the Teacher 97 

schools, but between these two extremes, we can call 
it teaching only by courtesy." Another, the presi- 
dent of a State University, is reported to have said, 
"I have resolved never again to turn my undergradu- 
ates over to young Ph. D.'s. It takes five years to 
make a commonsense teacher of a raw doctor fresh 
from three years of graduate work." 

If these statements are true, and I am afraid that 
there's much of truth in them, the situation is rather 
serious. Still, it isn't at all surprising when one 
takes the whole matter into consideration. For 
relatively few university instructors have given any 
attention to the matter of teaching itself. They 
have studied the subject matter with which they are 
to deal. They have become proficient so far as 
knowledge is concerned. No fault can be found with 
them touching the matter of erudition. But they 
have not given any reflective thought to the art of 
teaching. They have not made a study of the 
human mind in its development in order to know how 
it receives knowledge as mental nourishment, and to 
understand the assimilative process ; they have not 
given themselves to a systematic and scientific study 
of human life so as to know how to handle it in its 
various moods and characteristics. How differently 
these good people would have planned if they had 
expected to practise Law, or Medicine or to enter 
the Ministry! In every such case they would have 
made professional preparation for their work. Isn't 
it strange that any one should think that this pro- 
fession — the most important — could be practised 
with success in its higher realms, by people who have 
never given its practise one moment's attention? 
President Butler, in giving reasons for poor college 



98 On the Firing Line in Education 

teaching, says, "Too few instructors are interested in 
education." 

I am reminded of Socrates' shrewd parody of a 
supposed speech of Euthydemus who, totally igno- 
rant of statecraft, desired election to an important 
position in the government of the city of Athens. 
It is suggestive here : "I, man of Athens, have never 
learned the medical art from any one, nor have been 
desirous that any physician should be my instructor ; 
for I have constantly been on my guard, not only 
against learning anything of the art from any one, 
but even against appearing to have learned any- 
thing; nevertheless confer on me this medical ap- 
pointment, for I will endeavor to learn by making ex- 
periments upon you." Comment is unnecessary. 

There are three kinds of knowledge that every 
teacher should possess, that every successful teacher 
does possess: first, knowledge of the subject matter 
with which he deals ; second, knowledge of the human 
mind which he is trying to stimulate; and third, 
knowledge of the way to bring these two together in 
a helpful manner. Of the three, I am afraid that 
university instructors have, in the main, but the 
first. At any rate, all they know of the other two 
is of an empirical character and what they have 
picked up incidentally. There are exceptions, to be 
sure. Every worthy institution has them, striking 
exceptions, too, some of them are. A few of our 
older men have become good teachers thru practise 
and experiment, and an occasional young man now 
comes with professional preparation. But yet, as in 
so many other matters, the exceptions merely prove 
the rule. 

Thus equipt, or rather with this serious lack of 



The University and the Teacher 99 

equipment, the young university instructor begins 
his work. If he is, to use the words of the university 
president just quoted, "a raw doctor fresh from three 
years of graduate work," he probably begins by 
copying the methods of procedure of his own recent 
instructors. He tries to set these immature boys and 
girls at research problems and, in classroom, tries 
to impart information by the lecture method. 

How well I remember such an instance in my own 
freshman days. I fell into the hands of such an in- 
structor in Greek. We were reading that most 
charming of Greek stories — The Odyssey. Textual 
criticism was this man's hobby, and we were put to 
work trying to compare texts, to delve into the in- 
tricacies of form and structure — trying to improve 
upon Homer! Such information as we could not 
find he gave us, in the formal lecture, day after day. 
But when we got it, we did not want it because we 
did not know what to do with it. Now, I am not 
quarreling with textual criticism. It would have 
been all right for that young doctor (he was younger 
than I was at that time) to deal with the facts of 
textual criticism, with some people, at some time, 
but it was all wrong for him to attempt to give those 
facts to us in our freshman year in the College of 
Arts. They were not adapted to our intellectual 
needs. They did not fit into our mental stomachs. 
We could not keep them down, or in, or something. 
But the pathetic fact was that the instructor did not 
know that they did not fit. I, being older than many 
in the class and thus appreciating better the barren- 
ness of the Greek pasture in which we were trying to 
graze, finally managed, by a little skilful maneuver, 
to escape and to join another group that happened 



100 On the Firing Line in Education 

to be in the care of a real teacher who knew not only 
Homer but, as well, freshman boys and girls, the 
reasons for teaching Homer to freshmen boys and 
girls, and how to do it. He was acquainted with 
both the science and the art of teaching. Oh, how 
green was the pasture here, and how abundant and 
how nutritious the food! In all my university ex- 
perience I recall nothing more delightful. 

But this is ancient history? Yes, I know it is. 
But yet, I am sorry to say, history repeats itself. 
Those three great mistakes that that young doctor 
made in my Greek class some twenty or more years 
ago are being made this very year by young doctors 
and by old doctors and by many who are not doctors 
at all, in one subject or another, in well-nigh every 
college or university in the United States. Our in- 
structors do not know well enough how to adapt 
knowledge to human needs ; they have the erroneous 
notion that the chief function of an educational in- 
stitution is to impart information; and, too, many 
of them are afflicted with the lecture craze. 

Touching these three mistakes, let me say, briefly : 
first, as to the adaptation of knowledge: the word 
education is derived from the Latin educo, educare, 
and means to nourish, and nourishment, physical, 
mental, or moral, is never secured save as the food 
is adapted to the organism. And just as much care 
as our scientific dietitians give to our dining-room 
service, our university instructors should give to the 
mental and moral pabulum that they serve to their 
students, especially the lower classes if not the 
entire body of undergraduates. They should know 
this knowledge as mental nourishment; they should 
know the condition of the mind, and they should 



The University and the Teacher 101 

know how to select and prepare this food for diges- 
tion and assimilation. 

As to the second mistake, the undue emphasis upon 
the mere imparting of knowledge: let me quote a 
few words from President Wilson, uttered when 
President of Princeton University: "We should re- 
member," said he, "that information is not educa- 
tion. The greater part of the work that we are do- 
ing in our colleges to-day is to impart information." 
I am afraid that he is correct. I am very much afraid 
that that is mainly what we are doing. But it is 
wrong. The greater part of our work should not be 
to impart knowledge. It should be to assist in in- 
terpreting the knowledge that the student himself 
gets — to fit it to his own life needs and to help him 
learn how to study and how to think for himself. 
In other words, this information in which we deal 
should not be an end in itself, but a means to an end. 
And that end should be development, mental power, 
point of view — character. To be sure, we must deal 
in knowledge facts (do not, I beg of you, misunder- 
stand me) but not for the mere possession of those 
facts. 

And lastly the lecture craze, under the domination 
of which otherwise sensible people get into the habit 
of supplying information to students who already 
know how to read instead of telling them where to 
find it and then discussing it with them. How 
common it is ! But why? Simply because it is easy. 
How much easier it is than to conduct a real live 
recitation in which there is the give and take, the 
action and reaction, of eager vigorous young minds, 
where the instructor is the agency of interpretation 
and the inspiration! To conduct such an exercise 



102 On the Firing Line in Education 

with from thirty to fifty bright college students and 
keep them on the alert is no lazy man's task. It re- 
quires brains and skill, whereas anybody can do the 
other thing! President Foster is correct in saying, 
"There should be fewer lectures . . . the easiest 
of all methods of instruction." 

Again let me give an illustration drawn from my 
own sad experience, just to show what at least some 
of this lecturing is. This, you see, is getting to be 
a confession as well as an exposition. I was taking 
a course in the History of Philosophy. It was given 
by a man well known in the educational world, then 
and now. He was well thought of both as a teacher 
and a man. He read his lectures from manuscript. 
We were supposed to put into our note books every 
golden word that dropt from his inspired lips. And 
the most of us tried to do so, and in the effort got 
down some that were not golden. I did as the rest 
did till one day, fresh from the lecture, I went into 
the library and chanced upon a copy of Burt's "His- 
tory of Greek Philosophy." I opened it and shortly 
found the very discussion, and some of the very sen- 
tences, word for word, that I had just copied with 
so much labor into my note book. And they were 
in print, too, so much easier to read than my note 
book writing! I at once sent to the publisher for a 
copy of the book and took no more notes in that 
course. Nor did I take any more courses under that 
instructor. 

And so it was in a course in history — only there 
the kind old professor was naive enough to tell us 
the name of the book from which he got his lectures. 
And again, let me say that history repeats itself. 



The University and the Teacher 103 

Am I wrong in my criticism? Let me quote from 
one whose words carry more weight than do mine — 
Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia Uni- 
versity— (Ed. Rev. Apr., 1915, p. 399) : "To use— 
or rather to abuse — the academic lecture by making 
it a medium for the conveyance of mere information 
is to shut one's eyes to the fact that the art of print- 
ing has been discovered. The proper use of the lec- 
ture is the critical interpretation by the older 
scholar of the information which the younger has 
gained for himself. Its object is to inspire and to 
guide and by no means merely to inform." 

I do not mean to condemn the lecture method ab- 
solutely. There are certain lines of work in which 
it is quite necessary. This is true in some advanced 
courses, especially in the sciences, where an instruc- 
tor is doing both lines of university work — carrying 
on research and giving his advanced students the 
results of his findings. Of course these have not yet 
been embodied in a text or other printed form and 
cannot be thus given. 

And this same justification can be urged for some 
of the work in our professional schools where both 
the material used and the end sought are different. 
In still another line of work the lecture is permis- 
sible — if it deal with a relatively new subject or with 
new phases of an old subject not yet covered by a 
satisfactory text. But here it need not continue 
long because some enterprising instructor will soon 
satisfy the need. The formal lecture has therefore 
no place in the earlier and but slight place in the 
later years of undergraduate work. Its place should 
be taken by the text and reference book and the 



104 On the Firing Line in Education 

class discussion. One of the finest accomplishments 
that we can help our students to gain is the ability 
to master the book. 

Then, in conclusion, touching the matter of teach- 
ing, fidelity to truth compels me to admit, tho reluc- 
tantly, that much of it is very poor. It satisfies the 
external demands and that is about all. It is not of 
a character to kindle enthusiasm nor to develop high 
ideals of scholarship. Much of it, I said, not all. 
Every institution has some good teachers, some very 
excellent ones, but no institution is overstockt with 
species .of that genus. The great majority of our 
undergraduates are poorly taught. That examina- 
tion mortality is not greater than it is is due to two 
fine qualities, one in the student body and the other 
in the instructors. It speaks eloquently of the in- 
itiative of the students, and demonstrates that in- 
structors can be fair even if they can't teach. Many 
times we know that we are to blame for the poor work 
of the student and, knowing it, will not visit the 
penalty upon the unoffending head. 

The reason for this lamentable situation can be 
traced to two practises : In the first place, up to the 
present time, as said before, very few prospective 
college teachers have made any professional prepa- 
ration for their work as teachers. In the second 
place, it is the almost universal custom to place the 
freshmen and sophomores, by all means our largest 
classes and the ones in greatest need of skilled 
teachers, in the hands of young instructors who have 
not yet learned how to teach. Relief will come thru 
two changes ; first, when either the State or the gov- 
erning board of the college shall demand professional 
preparation of every one allowed to occupy a teach- 



The University and the Teacher 105 

ing position, just as we do now for positions in the 
elementary and secondary schools. And if any one 
should raise a question as to the value of such prepa- 
ration, my only but all-sufficient answer is to point 
to the universally recognized improvement in the 
character of teaching in those parts of our edu- 
cational system since that requirement was put into 
effect. And the second needed change is this — for 
Presidents seeking teachers to ask candidates two 
questions instead of one as heretofore: first, of 
course, the question should be, "What do you 
know?" Satisfied as to that, let the second come 
clear and strong, "Can you teach?" And until an 
affirmative answer is demonstrated, let the appoint- 
ment be withheld. It might be salutary, too, in deal- 
ing with the forces on the ground, to follow President 
Foster's suggestion given in these words : "It would 
be well if more teachers were dismissed because they 
fail to stimulate thinking of any kind." 

I come now to the last of my three sub-topics, 

The University's Attitude Toward the Prepa- 
ration of Teachers for the Schools 
of the State 

Fortunately, its discussion need not detain us 
long. What should be that attitude? If you will 
analyze the relationship existing between the 
teachers of a state and that state's progress and de- 
velopment, and then recall my brief discussion of the 
function of a State University — to provide leaders — 
the answer to the question is at once apparent. The 
logic of the situation is clear. For what other body 
of people in a state are so clearly the state's leaders 



106 On the Firing Line in Education 

as the teachers? Always intellectually and, for the 
most part, in these days, morally and physically, the 
teachers in our schools mold the coming generation 
and guide it into paths of progress and accomplish- 
ment. This is true of the teachers of a state more 
than of any other group of people within its borders 
not excepting the ministry. 

We have, in the States, a system of State Normal 
Schools maintained for the purpose of preparing 
teachers for the elementary schools. Each state of 
the Union has from one to a dozen of these institu- 
tions. North Dakota has three. The course of 
study covers from one to two years' work in advance 
of a four-year high school course. In the East it is 
usually two years, in the West, one. This work is 
partly academic and partly professional and is al- 
ways supposed to include a certain amount of prac- 
tise teaching under expert supervision. 

The elementary teachers thus provided for by the 
normal schools, there are left for preparation at 
the university teachers for the secondary schools, 
for city superintendencies, special teachers of vari- 
ous kinds, and teachers for college and university 
positions. And this latter is a work, it seems to me, 
the State University must perform. They are al- 
ready doing this, to quite an extent, for the high 
schools ; a few are doing it well and the rest are 
working in that direction. A few, too, are taking up 
the more advanced phases of the work and are com- 
petent to prepare for college teaching. The move- 
ment is strongly on. 

It may not be uninteresting for me to trace this 
movement briefly as it has developed with us. For it 
has been a development. Our system of education 



The University and the Teacher 107 

was not planned at the beginning from a careful 
theoretical study of our present or prospective edu- 
cational needs, but has grown up, little by little, step 
by step, to meet and satisfy from time to time pres- 
ent and pressing needs. 

The movement for the professional preparation of 
teachers began in the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century in Massachusetts. That state, with others, 
was suffering from an educational declension that 
had been going on for a long time. Matters were 
getting serious. Finally, a few clear-headed, far- 
seeing leaders made an analysis of the situation hop- 
ing to bring about a betterment of conditions. They 
quickly put the finger upon the sore spot — the poor 
quality of teaching being done in the schools. A 
remedy was sought. It was found in the European 
Normal Schools, an institution devoted to the pro- 
fessional preparation of teachers for the elementary 
schools. An agitation was begun for its establish- 
ment on this side of the water. After many weary 
years the efforts were crowned with success when, in 
1838, the State Legislature of Massachusetts 
planned for the equipment of three. Thru their 
work the character of the teaching in the elementary 
schools was at once improved. Other states followed 
the example and this new institution soon began its 
westward sweep, following the development of the 
country. 

This early work, however, had in mind the im- 
provement of teachers for only the common schools, 
rural and urban. Indeed, at that time no one even 
suggested that any other teacher needs special prep- 
aration. But when, after the Civil War, the high 
schools began to develop so markedly, the problem of 



108 On the Firing Line in Education 

teachers became a pressing one. Since teachers with 
normal school preparation were everywhere being 
recognized as superior to all others in the elementary 
schools, it was the most natural thing in the world 
for those in charge of the new high schools to de- 
mand professional preparation of their teachers. 

But where could it be obtained? Not in the nor- 
mal schools, because it should be of different char- 
acter than that planned for elementary teachers. 
To make a long story short, the universities and 
colleges took the matter up and provided the pro- 
fessional work thought necessary by adding Depart- 
ments of Education. Michigan University was the 
first to act when, in 1878, the Regents established a 
chair called the "Theory and Art of Teaching." The 
example was followed by others, and, tho limited in 
scope and experimental in character, it was at once 
seen to be justified in the improved character of high 
school teaching. Improvements were sure to follow. 
The next step was the expansion of the department 
of education into the Teachers College, or School of 
Education, as it is getting to be called, which is now 
recognized as a professional school of equal rank 
with the School of Law or the School of Medicine. 
An essential element of its equipment is a high school 
for observation and practise under expert super- 
vision, just as an elementary practise school is an 
essential part of a well equipt normal school. 

New York University, in the city of New York, 
was the first to move in this direction. This was in 
1890. For fifteen years progress was slow and halt- 
ing and confined to private institutions. But it was 
justifying itself. In 1905 the University of North 
Dakota effected the larger organization, the first 



The University and the Teacher 109 

of the State universities to do so. During the last 
five or six years, however, several others have fallen 
into line including such institutions as Missouri, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The institutions that 
have not yet effected this change and thus organized 
schools of education still maintain their Depart- 
ments^ Education and thus try to satisfy the need. 
The University of North Dakota was also one of the 
very first to make use of the high school for observa- 
tion and practise, and in all lines of development has 
been recognized as occupying an advanced position. 
Other institutions, older and larger, contemplating 
a change, have frequently advised with us. If this 
mention seems borne of institutional pride, I trust 
that it will also be regarded as pardonable. 

Thus the movement — not the result of a theoreti- 
cal formulation, but a situation forced upon us by 
the logic of events. It is as logical, however, and as 
irrevocable, as tho produced by deductive reasoning. 
An explanation of a statement made earlier in the 
paper as to the relative teaching abilities of ele- 
mentary, secondary, and higher teachers, can now 
be seen in the periods of development of the corre- 
sponding professional schools. 

What should be the attitude of the university to- 
ward the education of teachers? Let us follow the 
development a little farther. 

During the last few years another very interest- 
ing phase of the movement has begun to show itself. 
You will recall that as soon as professional prepara- 
tion demonstrated its usefulness in improving the 
character of elementary teaching, it was demanded 
for teachers in the secondary schools. And now 
that it has proved efficient in that field, it is being 



110 On the Firing Line in Education 

demanded in the field next higher — the colleges and 
universities. And this demand, like the others, is no 
longer confined to professional schools or educa- 
tional journals — to the people from the inside. It 
is being taken up by laymen, even the daily papers, 
and prest with some vigor. To give the point of 
view, I give a single quotation from an editorial in 
a recent issue of the Minneapolis Journal: "None 
of our graduate schools require any course in edu- 
cation or teaching methods, or any previous ex- 
perience in teaching work for a Ph. D. degree, ex- 
cept, of course, in the field of education, where theory 
is cultivated, if not practised. May it not be found 
that the best method to increase the teaching effi- 
ciency of the undergraduate instruction in colleges 
and universities will be to provide every graduate 
student with definite and detailed instruction in 
teaching methods for his chosen subject?" 

This demand, thus clearly voiced, and coming 
from many sides, will continue until granted as has 
been the case with each of the others. And as a 
result the teaching of our undergraduates will be 
improved. To do this added work, however, will 
not require another institution. The present uni- 
versities, thru their Schools of Education, amplified 
and strengthened, will supply the need. 

Just as the University, thru its Medical School, 
provides its community with skilled physicians and 
public health officers to secure and preserve public 
health, and thru its Law School performs a similar 
service in sending out men who become competent 
lawyers and judges to secure the administration of 
justice, and thru its College of Engineering, its en- 
gineers to safeguard property, public welfare and 



The University and the Teacher 111 

life itself, so, thru its School of Education, it must 
provide its teachers for all these and other advanced 
fields. And all this service must be performed not 
that individual citizens may be better prepared to 
make a living, amass a fortune, or achieve fame, but 
that the community may be served. 

So the School of Education, now given equal rank 
with other professional schools of the university, 
must ere long be recognized, by virtue of the work 
thus forced upon it, as, in a very definite way, su- 
perior to them all in opportunity and responsibility. 



IV 
THE EYE PROBLEM IN THE SCHOOLS 



A Paper read before the 19 H meeting of the North 

Dakota State Association of Opticians. It was 

printed in the May, 19 lh issue of "The 

Optical Journal and Review" also m 

the same issue of "The Keystone" 



IV 
THE EYE PROBLEM IN THE SCHOOLS 

I DO not know how fully people appreciate the 
importance of the eye as an agent, or factor, 
of human cultivation. Judging from the amount of 
work it is being made to do in our schools and in 
nearly all our processes of education, we might per- 
haps be led to feel that its importance is fully ap- 
preciated, indeed, that it is being looked upon as the 
sole factor, or agent. But, on the other hand, this 
very excessive use, especially in the early school 
years, leading, as it does in such a large percentage 
of cases, to serious impairment of vision, almost tells 
us that its great value is not appreciated. If it were, 
should we be likely to abuse it as we do in these early 
years and thus render it incapable of performing its 
larger, fuller use later on? The attitude seems 
rather to be that its conservation is not thought to 
be necessary. That, however, springs from igno- 
rance rather than from studied disregard. 

But let us look for a moment at the processes 
of education and note where the eye comes in. If 
there is anything upon which leading educators are 
now practically agreed, or upon which they tend to 
agree, it is that education as a process is a matter 
of development rather than the learning of knowl- 
edge facts. Now, that development is analogous 
to the growth and development of the plant, that is, 

115 



116 On the Firing Line in Education 

it is brought about thru nourishment. In the plant 
this nourishment is taken in thru the roots, becomes 
absorbed and assimilated and thus ministers to 
growth and development. In the child, looking at 
it from the physical point of view and having in 
mind psychical, not physical, nourishment, the sense 
organs serve this purpose. Did you ever stop to 
think that the sense organs form the only connect- 
ing link between the great outside world, which serves 
as raw material for the nourishment, and the inner 
life of the child, the development of which we are 
seeking? Did you ever stop to think that these 
sense organs, the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, 
and the surface of the body as the organ of touch, 
form the only possible avenue of approach to that 
inner life? Cut off, or close up, these avenues and 
no development of this inner life would be possible 
in the slightest degree. Thus considered, these same 
sense organs, simple as they seem to be, leap into 
importance that almost staggers one's thought. The 
most priceless possession of any child, I often say 
to my classes in education, is made up of their eyes, 
their ears, their noses, their tongues, and their fin- 
ger tips — simply because thru them is poured the 
nourishment that sustains psychic life and ministers 
to the development of the same. 

Of these five sense organs, the eye is, par excel- 
lence, the one of value. More psychic nourishment is 
poured into the laboratory of psychic life thru this 
one channel alone than thru all others combined. In- 
deed, one of our most eminent scientific psychologists 
after making most careful investigation of the mat- 
ter, estimates that the eye's contribution is about 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 117 

74% as against the other 26% that comes thru all 
the other sources. If this relative value of the eye be 
even approximately correct, how eminently impor- 
tant it is that it be studied with close scientific ac- 
curacy, that it be guarded with the utmost and 
intelligent jealousy, and that it be cared for with 
the most scrupulous fidelity! 

But what is the situation? The Optician and the 
Oculist have made the most careful, scientific study 
of the eye. They know it thoroly, both its possi- 
bilities of service and its limitations. And they have 
told the rest of us all about it. But let us see how 
intelligent we are in the use of the knowledge they 
have given us. They tell us that the eye of the child 
is undeveloped and that in the undeveloped state it 
should not be much used on small or close work. 
In other words, the child's eye is far-sighted. But 
at the age of six years we place the child in the 
school room, put a book in its hands, and compel 
its use, eyes or no eyes, as long as the child remains 
in any institution of learning. Why, gentlemen, 
we have gone mad on this book proposition. We 
act as tho we think that it is only in the book that 
knowledge can be found. We act as tho we think 
that it is only thru the printed page that psychic 
nourishment can reach the inner life of the child, 
whereas, as a matter of fact, both the knowledge 
and the nourishment that are appropriate to the 
child in all its early years are better obtained thru 
direct contact with the great outside world itself 
and by direct communication from the lips of the 
teacher. If this fact were fully appreciated and 
acted upon, we should, in two very definite ways, 



118 On the Firing Line in Education 

conserve this very important organ; for we should 
use the eyes upon objects at a greater distance thus 
preventing unnecessary strain, and allow other or- 
gans of sense to share with the eye in the work of 
gathering information and of appropriating mental 
nourishment. 

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not un- 
derestimating the place and value of books, nor de- 
crying their use. They are the storehouse of knowl- 
edge and the source of inspiration, but not for chil- 
dren. Our young children in school and out of 
school read too much — are too much tied to the 
book. Thru this prolonged and close use of the eye 
upon small and nearby objects for which, in its un- 
developed condition, it is not fitted, the organ is 
permanently weakened and rendered incapable of its 
legitimate use later in life when the book is a neces- 
sity. And again, this excessive use of the eye causes 
an atrophy of the other organs that is really serious. 

Nor is this all. The Optician and the Oculist have 
studied the matter so carefully and know the eye so 
thoroly in its various stages of development that 
they know exactly the size of type that children 
of various ages should use. And they know, too, 
the kind of paper that should be used in books for 
children. And they have told us all about it. But 
we systematically disregard all this information 
gained with such painstaking care, and instead of 
using the large clear type and the unglazed, soft 
tinted paper recommended, we persist in tolerating 
the unsatisfactory merely because it is a little 
cheaper. Penny wise and pound foolish we surely 
are. What we save now we shall have to pay later 
on with compound interest besides compelling our 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 119 

children to undergo physical pain and mental 
handicap. 

And yet again. We are told by our scientific 
friends the relative amounts of window and floor 
space that the schoolroom should have in order to 
be adequately lighted! Not one in ten has as much 
window space as it should have, and a good portion 
of what has been provided is frequently covered up 
by shades thru the teacher's perverted notion of 
relative values — seeming to have greater apprecia- 
tion for certain so-called artistic effects than for 
eye comfort and safety in work. And then again, 
these scientific friends of ours have told us that 
there should be in the schoolroom no cross lights ; 
that the light should not shine upon the blackboards 
nor into the faces of the children, but that it should 
come only from the rear and the left and from above. 
They have found out, too, and told us, the proper 
shades of color for the walls — scientific knowledge, 
all of it, and therefore thoroly reliable. But how 
systematically do we disregard all this valuable in- 
formation! In the construction of a new school 
building there is nothing that should receive more 
careful and scientific consideration than the matter 
of lighting, but too often the architect is either en- 
tirely ignorant of the entire matter, or else is self- 
ishly interested in so-called architectural effects. 

I do not mean that we all disregard all these 
things, that we have no school houses properly con- 
structed, no school books properly printed, and no 
teachers intelligent and sensible in their handling of 
boys and girls. Not at all. During the last twenty 
years we have made long strides in advance along 
many of these lines in many places. But the bright 



120 On the Firing Line in Education 

spots are still the exception and not the rule. The 
friends of children and of the race need to keep 
vigilantly at work. 

Now, let us look at the matter from another point 
of view. Let us ask what are the results of this per- 
sistent and widespread disregard of the normal con- 
ditions under which the eye should work and of the 
fundamental laws of eye development. What do we 
find? Why, we find just what you are prepared to 
expect after considering the above disregard. We 
find that, whereas at the beginning of school life the 
percentage of school children suffering from visual 
defects is relatively small, that percentage increases 
as we ascend the grades. In other words, the regu- 
lar, systematic work of our schools is all the time 
weakening the eyes — all the time causing serious 
visual defects. Gulick and Ayers came to this con- 
clusion as one of the results of their exhaustive in- 
vestigation, made in 1908, which culminated in the 
well known work on "Medical Inspection of Schools," 
published at that time. This is all the more strik- 
ing since they found that the prevalence of other 
physical defects steadily decreases as the years pass. 

An investigation carried on in Jefferson City, Mis- 
souri, in 1907-1908, illustrates the point under dis- 
cussion; 20% of all children in grades one to three 
inclusive were found to have defective vision, whereas 
in grades nine to twelve inclusive 40.5% were found 
thus handicapped. In some parts of Germany the 
increase in defective vision as children ascend the 
grades is seen to be much more marked than in our 
own country. In one particular study that comes 
to mind, a study of short-sightedness alone (pub- 
lished, however, some years ago) it was shown that 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 121 

the increase was from practically none at all to ap- 
proximately 100%. In other words, the work of 
the schools had made practically every child near- 
sighted. And the general tendency seems to be in 
this direction. Indeed, I know of but one study in 
which a contrary tendency has been observed. And 
that was in a rural district — St. Louis County, Mis- 
souri — where a study was made about four years 
ago. Under the conditions observed there, the fre- 
quency of short-sightedness seemed to diminish with 
increasing age. And the reasons for this local ten- 
dency, being so directly contrary to the general ten- 
dency, men have been trying to understand. Various 
suggestions have been made such as the atmosphere 
of the rural as against the city districts being, in the 
main, more favorable from hygienic points of view; 
or the fewer pupils in the classes in school, thus 
enabling the teachers to give more personal atten- 
tion so preventing undue eye-strain ; and the shorter 
school year maintained in the country giving the 
children less prolonged periods of eye-strain. But 
whatever be the explanation of this interesting ex- 
ception, it yet remains true that the regular work 
of the school, week in, week out, year after year, 
causes the eyes of our children to deteriorate, or at 
least the two go hand in hand with grounds for a 
very strong suspicion in the minds of those who have 
expert knowledge of the general situation that the 
one is the cause of the other. 

With this point established, namely, that the work 
of the schools is but ill-adapted to the structure 
the nature of the child's eye, resulting in steady de- 
terioration, let us try to see how widespread is such 
deterioration and how serious. This can best be done 



122 On the Firing Line in Education 

briefly thru the use of a few statistics taken from 
the results of investigations that have been made 
as to the physical conditions of our school children. 
From these results I disregard all figures save those 
that bear on the matter of visual defects since that 
is our one topic of discussion. 

In Cleveland, Ohio, in 1906-1907, a very exhaust- 
ive and illuminating investigation was made under 
the general supervision of Dr. Wallin, one of the 
most eminent authorities on the relationship of the 
physical and the mental in the work of our schools. 
Dr. Wallin called to his assistance many experts, 
both medical and physical, and his report was a 
very noteworthy one from many points of view. I 
touch only two or three points here and there. In 
one school, the Mayflower, located in a fine residence 
section of the city, 972 pupils were examined, and 
20% of them found to be suffering from some rather 
serious form of eye defect. In an East End school, 
another of the so-called better class of schools, 668 
children were examined and 32.4% found with de-' 
fective vision. Even more startling than these were 
the results found in a school of about the same size 
in what was called a "congested" district of the city. 
Six hundred and sixteen were examined and 71.1% 
found defective. 

Another very significant fact was brought to light 
by this investigation — the disregard paid to the 
whole matter by parents and teachers. Perhaps I 
should not include teachers in speaking of this dis- 
regard since they have, at best, but advisory power. 
In the East End school, out of the 668 children ex- 
amined, 216, or 32.4% were found defective, but 
only 43, or 6.4%, were being relieved by the use of 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 123 

glasses. And in the "congested" district the dispar- 
ity was even more striking since out of the 437, or 
71.1% of the entire number who had visual defects, 
only 11, or 1.8%, were being relieved. 

In one investigation made in New York City in 

1908, 1,442 pupils were considered, and 42% found 
suffering from eye defects. In Jefferson City, Mis- 
souri, in 1908, the results of the examination of 
1,000 white children showed 36.5% suffering from 
somewhat serious visual defects ; and many others in 
lesser degrees. Of these 1,000 children, 410, or 
41%, were found to need the assistance of glasses, 
but only 38, or 3.8%, were being thus assisted. 

In Los Angeles, California, in 1909, 5,000 chil- 
dren were examined, and 61% found to be suffering 
from the same trouble. Again, in Philadelphia, in 

1909, the well-known Dr. Risley found, in an ex- 
amination of 2,422 children, that 44.7% were con- 
tinual sufferers from some form of eye trouble. I 
could easily cite similar results from many more stud- 
ies, but surely these are sufficient. These are start- 
ling facts, and very serious when we think merely 
of this one fact alone without considering it in its 
relationship to anything else. But when we stop to 
consider the fact that these sufferers are children, 
in the schools, and are thus handicapped in their 
work of education — in their efforts to fit themselves 
for the struggle of life — it assumes even larger pro- 
portions and becomes truly appalling. 

What does it mean? Why, it means, in terms 
of the school man, retardation and elimination. To 
the layman those words may need interpretation. 
Retardation means the checking of a pupil in his 
educational progress thru the grades, necessitating 



124 On the Firing Line in Education 

the spending of a longer period than that which is 
considered normal. For example, a normal pupil 
is one who enters school at six years of age and is 
promoted each year regularly; or "a pupil whose 
age and grade correspond to this standard." Thus, 
the standard age for a second grade pupil, during 
the year, is 7 years; for a fourth grade, 9 years; 
and for an eighth grade, 13 years ; or in every case, 
five more than the number of his grade. If one is 
older than the number of his grade plus five, he is 
retarded by the amount of the difference; thus a 
twelve-year-old child in the sixth grade is retarded 
one year since a sixth-grade child should be but 
eleven years old. Somehow he has lost a year. Thru 
failure to do satisfactory work such a child has had 
to repeat the work of some one of his grades. Elimi- 
nation means the dropping out of a child from school 
altogether before the regular course is completed. 
We find relatively little elimination in the lower 
grades since the compulsory attendance laws require 
attendance. But just as soon as the upper limit of 
age is reached there is much of it. 

I do not know how closely you have followed this 
matter of retardation in the schools and elimination 
from them, but I think sufficiently to render it un- 
necessary for me to discuss the matter at length. 
Let me refer to but one study which is typical as 
showing the seriousness of the situation. In 1907, 
Mr. S. L. Heeter, at that time Superintendent of 
Schools in St. Paul, Minnesota, working under in- 
struction of his Board of School Inspectors, made a 
very careful investigation as to the matter of re- 
tardation in the schools of that city. You may be 
surprised to learn some of the results. He found 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 125 

more than one-half, exactly 56%, of all the children 
in the schools at least one year behind normal grade, 
and many of them much more than one year behind. 
To be exact: 12,672 children were below grade. Of 
these, 6,328 were one year behind; 3,650 were two 
years behind; 1,689 were three years behind; 651 
were four years behind; 221 were five years behind, 
and 133 were six years behind. Now, what is the 
cause of such a serious situation? Mr. Heeter, in 
his report of his findings, speaks as follows : 

"There are evidently many causes of this phe- 
nomenal retardation — yet it seems likely that one 
of the largest factors ... is physiological, and that 
more attention given in our schools to the bodily 
conditions of our children will throw new light on 
our educational problems, and even on the subject 
of backward children, and of delinquency itself." 
"It appears," he goes on to say, "that the schools 
have been too exclusively concerned about the minds 
of children and too little concerned about their 
bodies. Much time and energy and money have been 
wasted in trying to make all children equal in men- 
tal power, without regard to physical inequalities, 
until now waste products are clogging our educa- 
tional machinery." And Mr. Heeter's conclusion is 
that of all who have studied the matter with any 
care. 

Let me now show the relationship existing be- 
tween the two, that is, between retardation and 
physical defects. I can do it briefly by referring 
to the work of Dr. Cronin in New York City. This 
is but one instance, but it is typical of conditions. 
A few years ago, as chief Medical Inspector of the 
schools of New York City, Dr. Cronin read a paper 



126 On the Firing Line in Education 

before the School Hygiene Association of America 
in which he made the statement that an examination 
of all children reported as backward by various 
teachers revealed 95% of them as physically de- 
fective. 

Thus, in a hasty way, but I think correctly, I have 
thrown the chief burden of backwardness in school, 
or retardation, upon physical defects. But our 
special topic is eye trouble. How much of this bur- 
den must be referred to this specific source? It is 
difficult to say exactly. But knowing as we do the 
great prevalence of eye defects among school chil- 
dren, from 20% to 71%, you remember, depending 
somewhat upon locality and environment ; and know- 
ing, too, the close relationship existing between the 
eyes of our children and the work of the schools 
(this school work, you know, is nearly all done with 
the eyes. It should not be, but it is) ; knowing all 
this, it is not beside the mark to say that a very 
large percentage of the retardation must be laid at 
its doors. 

And what are we going to do about it? What 
should be done? The reform is easily seen to be a 
many-sided one. It is educational — our teachers 
should come to know that the book is only one, and 
not the chief one, of the many sources of knowledge 
open to the child; it is physiological — we should all 
know the eye better than we do, its normal use and 
its limitations ; the reform is architectural — our ar- 
chitects and boards of education should realize that 
the seating and the lighting of school houses should 
receive most careful consideration; the reform is 
economic — we should come to appreciate the unwis- 
dom of being "penny wise and pound foolish," and 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 127 

recall the old saw, "a stitch in time saves nine" ; the 
reform is medical — we should get our people to see 
that thoro and regular medical inspection of all our 
school children is the only sensible method of pro- 
cedure. And so I might go on naming phase after 
phase of the problem. It is so many-sided that we 
can not hope for its immediate and perfectly satis- 
factory solution. But there are certain quite specific 
ends in view that should at once and all the time be 
kept before us. Touching the matter of medical in- 
spection, our state law, instead of being merely per- 
missive should be mandatory, and should be made to 
apply to every school community in the state. Of 
course, the cry of expense would be at once raised, 
but it could easily be shown, were there time at my 
disposal, that it would be an economic mesure 
rather than one increasing the cost of our schools. 
Because every time that a child repeats a grade in 
school, that year's school work in the life of the child 
has cost the city or school community twice as much 
as it should. Whenever, as in the case of St. Paul, 
already cited, a child is two, three, or six years be- 
hind normal grade, there is an extra heavy burden 
of taxation placed on the city. Medical inspection, 
wherever it has been made effective, has resulted in 
lowering, very materially, the amount of retarda- 
tion. And it is looked upon as saving the community 
very much more than it has cost, saying nothing at 
all about the added effectiveness of the child for the 
work of the school nor of his greater happiness. 
This statement could easily be substantiated were 
there time. But that is not necessary. It is so ap- 
parent that he who runs may read. 

But the time when we can expect such a law to 



128 On the Firing Line in Education 

be put in force is, I am afraid, considerably removed 
from the present. Large bodies move slowly; we 
must have patience. We must keep steadily at it 
preaching the good gospel of reform. But in the 
meantime can we not hasten the glad day of full and 
complete medical inspection, and at the same time 
bring relief to a very large number of little suf- 
ferers, by throwing emphasis, whenever the oppor- 
tunity offers, upon the phase of the subject that is 
before us this morning? The eye trouble is the chief- 
est of all those of a physical nature. It has far 
more to do in causing retardation of our boys and 
girls than any of the other physical defects, and 
therefore should receive its own prompt and vigor- 
ous attention irrespective of everything else. Upon 
this one point let us have immediate relief and keep 
it up as rapidly as possible. Let us adopt some 
program of action which will bring relief as quickly 
as possible to children suffering from visual defects. 
For I have no sympathy with the position taken by 
that foolish mother (perhaps J should be charitable 
and merely say "ignorant" mother. I think she was 
both ignorant and foolish), who said to me when I 
was urging her to have glasses fitted for her little 
girl, "Why, Mr. Ladd, I can't bear to think of Mary 
wearing glasses. I am going to keep them away 
from her just as long as she can possibly get along 
without them." I replied, "My good woman, if you 
have any regard for the comfort and well-being of 
your little girl, or if you care for her progress in 
school, instead of keeping glasses away from her as 
long as possible, you should see to it that she has 
the best that can be procured just as soon as they 
can be of the slightest assistance." I went on to 



The Eye Problem in the Schools 129 

tell her that it was entirely possible that the use of 
the glasses at that time for a year or two might 
enable her to do without them permanently later on. 
But she did not get them; of course not. They 
would not have added to the attractiveness of the 
little face. How hard it is for the unreflecting to 
deny themselves a present pleasure, whether in money 
or pride, for a future good ! 



THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE 
SCHOOL 



An Extension Lecture delivered in many places in 
North Dakota and Minnesota 



THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE 
SCHOOL 

IT goes without saying, I am sure, that these three 
great institutions — the Home, the Church, and 
the School — fundamental as they are in the life of 
each, and even of civilization itself, can not be ade- 
quately handled in the brief time given to a single ad- 
dress. But yet I think that in that time we can ac- 
count for each, roughly trace its interesting career, 
and locate it in our complex life of to-day with func- 
tion briefly stated. And in it all, or out of it all, di- 
rectly or indirectly, I think we shall see the relation- 
ship existing between the three. This relationship, so 
strong and so vital, the appreciation of which is so 
necessary for constructive action and large results 
in life, I particularly desire to make appear. And 
it is this relationship that gives appropriateness to 
the handling of the three in a single address tho 
each, from a different point of view, might well be 
made the center of an entire evening's consideration. 
The home, the church, and the school! What 
troops of memories arise around each as we turn 
our gaze backward ! How sweet and sacred appears 
the home as we recall mother and father, sister and 
brother, in the old home setting in the early days 
of our pilgrimage! How solemn and hallowed seems 
the church as we go back in thought to our first 

133 



134 On the Firing Line in Education 

connections with it in Sunday school, in its com- 
munion service, and to our own entrance as mem- 
bers ! And how fascinating and joyful, even tho 
sometimes tinged with regret or apprehension, the 
school as we retrace our pathway over the years of 
its associations ! The home, the church, and the 
school — but the first of these is the home. 

The Home 

Let me ask you, therefore, to think with me first 
of the home — of that institution which in its very 
inception, more than any other, was God-inspired; 
that institution which from its very beginning up to 
the present hour has, more than any other, reflected 
the spirit and purpose of God — that institution 
whose center is the child and whose function that 
child's development — the home. It is the most an- 
cient of all the institutions of man. Organized and 
set apart at the very dawn of human life, when the 
morning stars were singing together, the divine Voice 
gave it sanction and stated its function: "Be fruit- 
ful and multiply, and replenish the earth." And 
the institution, as the ages have passed, has never 
once lapsed and never repudiated its origin or its 
work. Still it has advanced so far and improved so 
much in outward appearance, at any rate, and de- 
veloped so greatly that, as we know it to-day, we 
may almost call it a modern institution, so modern 
indeed and so different from all others as to merit 
the name of American institution. 

Students of history have so laid bare the condi- 
tions of living and of home life in the past as to re- 
veal to us the fact that the home, as we know it 



The Home, the Church, and the School 135 

and love it, did not exist prior to our own day. In 
all former periods, even tho glorious to look back 
upon, some of them, golden days as they were of 
the world's upward struggle, we search in vain for 
our kind of a home. The home of the American 
workman to-day is provided with more comforts and 
conveniences, has in it more of the elements of cul- 
ture and refinement, is more eloquent of love and 
the higher life than was the home of the ruler of a 
few generations ago. And the chief factors in it 
all, those which bind all together and give meaning, 
are the honored place given the wife and mother 
and, springing from that, love, love of parent for 
child and child for parent. For we all know, when 
we come to think of it, that our love of home and 
dear ones is ever our motive for action as we explore 
new fields and mark out new paths, overcome ob- 
stacles and surmount difficulties — in a word, carry 
the banners of civilization to new heights ! 

The home of all people, in all ages of the world's 
history, but especially as we know it to-day, is the 
one thing for which men live and work. Stop the 
first man you meet on the street, — "rich man, poor 
man, beggar-man, thief, doctor, lawyer, butcher, 
priest," — any man, going along with a preoccupied 
mind, thinking of the case he is to plead, the trade 
he is to make, the book he is to write. Get into this 
man's mind, down below this particular thing that 
is on the surface of it, and down there there is one 
picture that you will always find, the picture of a 
cozy corner somewhere, of a woman sitting by the 
table or before the fire, of two or three growing girls, 
and a boy or two that look like him. Meet him wher- 
ever you will, find him in whatever occupation, or 



136 On the Firing Line in Education 

in whatever stage of spiritual or intellectual de- 
velopment; whenever you get under his jacket, 
whether it be a blouse or a tuxedo, you'll find this 
picture hanging on the wall of his heart. Ninety- 
nine men out of every hundred say, with Robert 
Burns: 

"To make a happy fire-side clime 

For weans and wife, 
That's the true pathos and sublime 

Of human life." 

And the young man of to-day, looking forth into 
the years that are to come, picturing himself as and 
where he would like to be, who sees himself alone, 
without the joys and companionship of wife and 
child, the young man who doesn't plan to have a 
home of his own to which he can lead the choice of 
his heart and in which he may multiply, thru the 
development of his own offspring, his powers of use- 
fulness, — such a young man is a selfish monstrosity. 
And the young woman who isn't longing for a home 
of her own — for a little kingdom in which as Queen, 
she may rule jointly with a chosen King in loving 
ministration to their natural subjects — such a young 
woman is an abnormal specimen. The desire of every 
little girl for a doll, the craving of every boy for an 
animal pet, is but the manifestation of the deep- 
seated instinct of parenthood. Do nothing to stifle 
it. Minister to its growth and development. And 
young man — young woman, you who have left behind 
the days of knee trousers and short dresses, and with 
them have laid aside the doll and the pet, think it 
not weakness when you find yourself irresistibly 



The Home, the Church, and the School 137 

drawn by the sweet smile of an innocent babe or by 
the childish prattle of one a little farther on. Be 
not ashamed when, under such influence, you picture 
yourself the center of a home, and in this connection 
think of him or her whom you would like to have 
share it with you. It is the sweetest influence that 
can ever come into your life. Rightly regarded and 
used, it will do more for your happiness and useful- 
ness than any or all others that will ever come to 
you. 

But when the crucial moment comes — when the 
die is to be cast and the promise asked and given 
that will bind the two lives together, halt for a mo- 
ment until one asks and the other answers this 
"Woman's Question." 

The Woman's Question 

"Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing 
Ever made by the Hand above — 
A woman's heart and a woman's life 
And a woman's wonderful love? 

"You have written my lesson of duty out; 
Manlike you have questioned me ; 
Now stand at the bar of my woman's soul 
Until I question thee. 

"You require your mutton shall always be hot, 
Your stockings and shirts shall be whole. 

I require your heart to be true as God's stars 
And as pure as Heaven your soul. 

"You require a cook for your mutton and beef. 
I require a far better thing. 



138 On the Firing Line in Education 

A seamstress you're wanting for stockings and 
shirts, 
I look for a man and a king. 

"A king for a beautiful realm called home, 

And a man that the Maker, God, 
Shall look upon as He did the first 

And say, 'It is very good.' 

"I am fair and young, but the rose will fade 
From my soft fair cheek some day ; 
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves 
As you did in the bloom of May ? 

"Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep 
I may launch my all on its tide? 
A loving woman finds Heaven or hell 
On the day she is made a bride. 

"I require all things that are grand and true, 
All things that a man should be, 
If you promise me this, I would stake my life 
To be all you demand of me. 

"If you can not do this, a seamstress and cook 
You can hire with little to pay. 
But a woman's heart and a woman's life 
Are not to be won that way." 

Yes, Bobby Burns was right when he said, 

"To make a happy fire-side clime, 
For weans and wife, 
That's the true pathos and sublime 
Of human life." 



The Home, the Church, and the School 139 

Exactly what is God's ultimate purpose for the 
human race, I think no one knows. And I am not 
sure that we need to know. Where clear vision is 
not granted we walk by faith. But even if the ulti- 
mate end is not clearly portrayed, even if we are 
kept in the dark as to the great outcome, we do 1 
know pretty well His method of procedure. A 
careful study of the past and a critical analysis of 
the data now at hand looking to the future enable 
us to grasp with some clearness the leading outlines 
of the program. From generation to generation, 
from century to century, from age to age, as time 
has rolled on, there has been a gradual moving on- 
ward and upward, a steady improvement both in the 
refining and civilizing of man's own being and in 
bringing that being into sympathetic relations with 
the external world, that is, a gradual development 
of man's own powers, and an ever increasing con- 
trol of the forces of nature. In spite of the fact that 
this progress has been, at times, painfully slow, it 
has never once ceased, and during the last century it 
has moved on with constantly accelerating speed until 
to-day the human race stands upon the highest point 
ever reached. I have absolutely no sympathy with 
that narrow pessimism which is always talking about 
"the good old times." All in all, there never was a 
time in the history of the world when man knew so 
much as to-day ; there never was a time when his life 
was so ministered to by the forces of nature ; never 
a time when his heart was so tender, when it re- 
sponded so quickly to human suffering, never a time 
when all forms of evil were so quickly condemned nor 
when so much good was being done. The long pro- 
gram seems to have been for each age and each 



140 On the Firing Line in Education 

generation to hand on to its successors the legacy 
received, but increased and strengthened and bet- 
tered. How much longer this upward movement is 
to continue, how much more the race is to know and 
do, how much better it is to be, no one knows. God's 
ultimate purpose, His great object in view — we may 
not be able to grasp, but certainly it is not difficult 
for us to note the general direction of the movement. 
It is upward. 

In all this, wherein does the home come, and what 
is its function? Is it not, has it not been from the 
very beginning the Divine agency used for doing 
this great work? Was not the home instituted, en- 
dowed with the divine power of love, and consecrated 
for the perpetuation of the race? "Be fruitful and 
multiply and replenish the earth." True, as many 
times pointed out, our toils and our struggles, our 
earnings and our productions, incidentally give us 
pleasure and satisfaction and power, but yet even 
these are but a means to an end, — that parents may 
beget, rear, and educate their children in such a way 
that they can carry the banner of civilization a 
little higher — lift society to a higher level and draw 
mankind nearer to God. 

So it is that the center and circumference of the 
home is the child. In the child the home finds its 
meaning, its excuse, and its justification. It exists, 
then, that the child may be adequately prepared for 
doing its great work in the world. Whatever else it 
may do, on the side, it has one great problem. The 
child ! The child ! The best crop the farmer raises, 
the best article the manufacturer puts on the market, 
the best ware the merchant handles, the best case the 
lawyer pleads, the best sermon the minister preaches 



The Home, the Church, and the School 141 

— or at least that which gives meaning to all of 
these — the child ! "The fruit of all the past and the 
seed of all the future." God bless the home and God 
bless its best fruitage — the child! 

The Church 

Thus the home — God's simple yet mighty agent in 
His great work of developing the human race. Its 
work was accepted and for a time all went well. Such 
preparation, mostly physical, as the child needed 
for its future work the home gave without difficulty. 
But this simple life could not continue indefinitely. 
One of the fundamental principles of life absolutely 
forbade man's standing still. The laws of growth 
and development pushed him on. Whether he would 
or not, he was compelled to move forward, just as the 
acorn, obeying the law of its being, changes its form, 
its size, and adds to its complexity. Little by little 
man, obeying these inexorable laws, began to develop. 
His mental, his moral, and his physical natures grad- 
ually assumed new forms — new needs and desires were 
born. More and more his vision became expanded 
until he could see into and mesurably appreciate 
the forces of nature. His life was becoming more 
complex. Now, this larger life, this greater com- 
plexity of life, in addition to its own complexity, 
added materially to the work of preparing the child 
for playing its part in this great onward movement. 

Such preparation as was needed by the child of 
the primitive home to equip it for playing its part 
as an adult would no longer suffice. The home must 
now do something more than satisfy the needs of the 
body — provide food, clothing, and shelter, and in- 
cidentally give opportunity to learn, mostly by imi- 



142 On the Firing Line in Education 

tation, how to do this for another generation of 
children. The spiritual life needed attention and, 
as well, the intellectual. Competition was growing 
keen, and each felt the need of a better equipment 
that he might play his part well in the larger life 
that was surely before him. And this larger outlook 
upon life was itself growing by what it was feeding 
upon and making its own demands for better things. 

But the home was handicapped. It felt the need, 
but with all other things that it had to do, had no 
time to take up these new duties. And again, 
the most of the homes, even if time had been abun- 
dant, did not know how to do the new work. So it 
set about finding a solution to its problem. This 
was found in the principle of the division of labor. 
It was seen that time would be saved and results 
much more satisfactorily reached by delegating to 
persons definitely prepared and set aside for that 
purpose certain phases of this work. So the church 
was instituted and, a little later, the school. To the 
church was delegated, speaking broadly, the re- 
ligious and moral development of the child and to 
the school, the intellectual development. 

It was exactly the same principle that, later on, 
took from the home the weaving of cloth and the 
making of shoes and other industrial pursuits. With 
this added complexity of life, the homes could not 
profitably carry on all these varied activities — be, 
in addition to a home, also a tailor shop and a shoe 
factory, a church and a school. And so the homes 
of a community combined, selecting one man par- 
ticularly adapted to that work to make all the shoes 
for the community, another the cloth, etc. And, in 
like manner, earlier in history, one was set aside to 



The Home, the Church, and the School 143 

minister to the spiritual life, and one to teach the 
children. Both were offshoots of the home, dele- 
gated by the home to do a certain very definite por- 
tion of its work. Each took directions from the col- 
lective home and looked to it as the source of its 
authority. And such it was. The point is this : the 
home was the original educational institution and, 
as well, the original religious institution. At first 
it alone performed the work of all three : it was our 
home, our church, and school all in one. It finally 
established the others and merely delegated work to 
these supplemental agencies, so, at any time, it may 
withdraw that work from them. It is master of the 
situation. This withdrawal may be done either by 
the collective home or by any individual home. If 
any home represented here this evening, for any 
reason whatever, wishes to resume the religious func- 
tion and alone direct the religious development of 
the children, no one can say it nay. And it is the 
same in regard to the school. If any parent here 
wishes to withdraw his children from the school and 
himself, either directly or indirectly, provide for their 
intellectual development, he has a perfect right to do 
so. Our compulsory attendance laws are satisfied 
when evidence is furnished of the child's advancement. 
Of course the church and the school, in this primitive 
stage, were both exceedingly crude — corresponding 
to the crude notions of religious and intellectual de- 
velopment then held by man, yet playing the same 
great part as now in the drama of life. I suppose it 
is true that these differentiations were at first only 
semi-conscious, but nevertheless they were real dif- 
ferentiations and had large influence upon the de- 
velopment of man. 



144 On the Firing Line in Education 

To trace the development of the church thru 
its early stages is not necessary for the pur- 
pose of this address, so I pass at once to the 
establishment of the Christian church which is in 
reality our representative of the same fundamental 
institution. . Like the home and the school, the 
church began in a very humble way, and during the 
progress of the centuries passed thru many vicissi- 
tudes and underwent many changes. Let me speak 
very briefly of four stages, or periods, of the history 
of the Christian church: first, the primitive stage, 
that period of about 350 years following its birth 
when, in the main, motives were pure, ambitions un- 
selfish, and ideals high. But, tho it was founded to 
provide the means of securing the religious develop- 
ment of the child and the race thru the perpetuation 
and extension of the teachings of Christ, and tho it 
was launched forth into its great career in the 
spirit of love and meekness and fellowship that char- 
acterized His life, it was not long, as history counts 
time, before that worthy function was entirely lost 
sight of, that spirit wholly cast aside, and the new 
institution entered upon its second period, becoming 
a mere political machine which, in its utter disre- 
gard of rights and justice, in the shrewdness and 
daring of its schemes, and in the blackness of its 
methods, almost surpassed even our own most skil- 
ful efforts in those directions. "My kingdom is not 
of this world," Christ had said, and yet the church, 
founded upon His teachings and led by men pretend- 
ing to be His true representatives, had become, in 
very deed, a kingdom of this world. The possession 
and use of worldly power by the church had so 
blunted its moral sense that Dante, in the early part 



The Home, the Church, and the School 145 

of the fourteenth century, felt forced to exclaim, 
and exclaimed with truth: 

"The Church of Rome, 
Mixing two governments that ill assort, 
Hath missed her footing, fall'n into the mire, 
And there herself and burden much defiled." 

But Dante's criticism and other forces brought 
to bear drew back the erring leaders to some slight 
conception of their function and to some slight 
effort toward the performance of duty, tho neither 
conception nor performance took them back to their 
pristine merit. And the church entered another 
historical stage, the third, and one whose dominant 
thought and purpose prevails even up to modern 
times. Indeed, so recently has it passed that its 
dark outlines are even yet discoverable as we glance 
backward. In this new conception of the church 
and its work we find the function of the institution 
to be not religious development of the individual and 
of the race, as it had been at first, but merely tech- 
nical salvation. And the institution may be pictured 
as a great lifeboat thrust out into the storm to save 
from destruction those who can be drawn within — 
while all others perish. 

You remember the painting of the picture, fore- 
ground and background, how the emphasis was 
thrown upon the world to come ! This world was 
not man's home. He was a sojourner here, a wan- 
derer. His citizenship was in Heaven. He was a 
pilgrim passing thru a strange and weary land, and 
the only purpose of the pilgrimage was a preparation 
for the life to come. The nature of man himself was 



146 On the Firing Line in Education 

corrupt. The world around him was evil. Alone 
and unaided he was powerless. He was lost both for 
this world and the next. The storms of life were 
about him, the great waves were ready to engulf him. 
But the church, as a lifeboat, was thrust out into 
the breakers, and upon certain stipulated conditions 
was ready to take him in. The church was repre- 
sented as having received direct from the hands of 
God "the keys of heaven and hell," and as being able 
to open the gates of a better world to all true be- 
lievers. But true believers, you know, were no longer 
the pure followers of the crucified Christ, simply 
those who would accept the man-made dogmas of 
the church. No matter how full of error the church 
was, no matter how corrupt her leaders, there could 
be no safety outside of her fold. Accept the dogma, 
salvation was sure; once within, all was well. Re- 
ligious development was not sought. The character 
of the life, previous or prospective, mattered not. 
Acceptance of the dogma was the only requirement. 
So she taught — having departed Oh ! so far from her 
character and program when given existence by the 
home and started out on her beneficent work. And 
so tight had her grip become that none dared dispute 
her claims. The child had outgrown her mother, 
that is, the church had, in its own conception, out- 
grown the home, and it repudiated her control. In- 
deed, she held the keys — she was the ark of safety. 

I have dwelt upon this because, with varying de- 
grees of emphasis, that has been the conception of 
the church from medieval times almost to our own 
day. Indeed, I am not sure that it has entirely 
passed even at the present time. There are doubt- 
less some people who continue thus to regard the 



The Home, the Church, and the School 147 

church, and there is more than one branch of the 
institution whose definitely formulated statements 
of belief can be interpreted in no other way however 
much, as a practical fact, the members have departed 
from them. 

There are some branches of the church that still 
teach that the child, newly born into the world, fresh 
from the hand of God, is already corrupt, prone to 
evil, of its own volition choosing evil in preference to 
good. And, believing that, they require the parents 
when presenting the babe at the altar for holy bap- 
tism, to affirm that that pure and innocent babe has 
inherited an evil and corrupt nature, and that it was 
conceived and born in sin. A monstrous doctrine, 
violating not only every parental instinct, but as 
well all the principles of psychology and ethics. 
Yea, verily, the Dark Ages are not yet wholly past! 
Yes, there are doubtless some who still look upon 
the church as a lifeboat, and who think that that 
lifeboat should offer safety and protection to those 
alone who already have on the life preserver. In 
other words, there are still some who seem to think 
that church membership should be granted only to 
those whose character and belief already assure them 
of abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom 
and who, therefore, do not really need church mem- 
bership. 

But yet, on the whole, as a working conception, we 
have discarded the lifeboat idea and are now regard- 
ing the church rather as a great school, so to speak, 
in which all the children of men, thru the grace of 
God and mutual helpfulness, may gradually develop 
the Christian character and eventually come to be 
the very elect of God. No longer is it being regarded 



148 On the Firing Line in Education 

as merely an ark of safety, a lifeboat, ministering to 
the few, but as a great social beneficent institution 
shedding abroad upon all people its life-giving light 
and lifting all men nearer to God; true, giving her 
choicest blessings to those who come closest and par- 
take most fully of her nature, but yet like the sun 
which shines upon all and both by direct and indirect 
rays warms and lightens all. Between the two views, 
what a contrast! And that change can not be bet- 
ter seen than by a contrast of the methods of work 
— the methods used to replenish the ranks, to offer 
the boon of membership to those deemed worthy or 
to those whom such boon could help. 

The old evangelism — you remember its key-note, 
the old revival meeting, in which skilful word paint- 
ing presented the two extremes, heaven and hell. And 
when the emotional nature was wrought up to the 
desired pitch and fear to the right degree, a choice 
was demanded, — conversion, it was called. The 
newer evangelism — Christian nurture in the home and 
school, and the various agencies of the church — is 
not as spectacular as the old. It doesn't make as 
much noise nor draw to itself so much attention. Nor 
do results so readily lend themselves to figures and 
tabulation. It does not bring about certain times 
when large accessions are made to the church mem- 
bership, feeling rather that a continuous stream, 
tho smaller, indicates a more healthy growth. But 
it recognizes the fact that human nature is not neces- 
sarily depraved, that, on the other hand, the Chris- 
tian life is the natural life and that the child under 
the sweet influences of the home and school and 
church passes naturally from one stage to another 
often not knowing when the transitions take place. 



The Home, the Church, and the School 149 

Christian nurture — a continuous process — in which 
development is the key-note, not conversion, a sud- 
den transformation, a terrible wrenching of the 
whole being, is the church's present method of 
growth. Oh! the old has not entirely gone — here 
and there we occasionally see evidences of its pres- 
ence. Professional evangelism we call it to-day. I 
ran across it in a recent trip East. A big, barnlike 
structure had been erected which was called "the 
tabernacle." Its floor was of sawdust sprinkled on 
the ground. Here for about a month a professional 
evangelist had harangued the curious crowds in im- 
moderate, and oftentimes immodest language. Wit 
and sarcasm and slang and emotion had been freely 
used in his efforts to make sinners "hit the sawdust 
trail," to use his own spectacular language, as well 
as to extort money from the pockets of the atten- 
dants. He left the town $5,000 richer than when he 
entered and also carried with him, as advertising 
material, a long list of so-called converts. A 
travesty on the sacred work of the church! But 
such methods are to-day the exception and not the 
rule, and the exceptions merely prove the rule. 

And to-day church membership is graciously held 
out to all who need help in the work of perfecting 
character — to all who need assistance in leading the 
Christian life, as well as to those whose battles have 
already been fought and won. The question asked 
is no longer, "Have you attained?" but rather, "Do 
you wish to attain?" When an individual, child or 
adult, seeks entrance at the doors of an educational 
institution, the only condition imposed is assurance 
of his desire to be a learner. The doors swing open. 
And thank God the church is at last coming to the 



150 On the Firing Line in Education 

same position. And so we see her to-day well started 
upon the fourth stage of her development, accepting 
as her one great work that given her at birth so long 
ago — the religious development of the child and the 
race. 

The School 

The American school is a wonderful institution. 
In its absolute universality and impartiality, in its 
fine spirit of democracy both of teachers and pupils, 
there is nothing like it elsewhere in the world. It is 
a product of the genius of our people. Product? 
Yes, but, also, successively, the most influential cause 
of the genius of our people. From the first, in a 
somewhat remarkable degree, we have been a people 
knowing no social classes or distinctions. The caste 
idea, so prevalent in European countries, has ever 
been repugnant to us. And our schools, emanating 
from such a people, have had a powerful reflex in- 
fluence in shaping the people and keeping those fine 
ideals ever before us. But let us go back and see 
whence it came — trace the connection between the 
complex, highly influential institution of to-day and 
the simple offshoot of the home of primitive times. 
Just when it was first instituted, nobody knows ; but 
in essential features it is very ancient. Long before 
the beginning of the Christian era, as a supplemen- 
tary agent of the home having in charge that one 
portion of its work, it was a well-recognized and 
highly esteemed institution. 

I have already called attention to the great 
changes that have taken place in the home and in the 
church as the centuries have passed. The school 
likewise has changed, and is to-day as far removed 



The Home, the Church, and the School 151 

from its original prototype as either of the others. 
It has changed because the home has changed, and 
in its changes has kept pace with the changing ideals 
and added complexities of home life. At the very 
first, only the essentials — teacher and boy — were 
present : no building, the great out-of-doors furnished 
the room and the friendly tree the only protection 
from sun and storm ; no course of study, no book — 
the teacher was all in all. But this stage passed 
and the next, that continued so long and is more 
characteristic, followed. Here we find the building 
and the book as well as the teacher and the boy. The 
boy's one task is to transfer the contents of the book 
to his own mental storehouse and the teacher's func- 
tion to see that the transfer is made. Knowledge 
was the main element of the child's preparation, that 
the home demanded of its school. And this often but 
ill-fitted him for the performance of the duties of life. 
This period continued for many centuries, down 
almost to the present time. But another and a 
greater followed — a period in which not merely 
knowledge was demanded as an outcome of the 
school's activities, but something else very different, 
including that, it is true, but finer and greater than 
that — something toward which they are the con- 
tributing agents — a somewhat harmonious develop- 
ment of the entire life — physical, mental, and moral. 
Little by little, as time has passed, the home seems 
to have been throwing added burdens upon the school 
until now it sometimes looks as if the school is ex- 
pected to give the entire preparation of the child — 
moral, physical, and manual, as well as mental. It 
sometimes seems as if the home had gone off on a 
vacation and left the school to do its work. Now, 



152 On the Firing Line in Education 

that statement implies a criticism of the home. On 
the other hand, it is frequently said by unfriendly 
critics of our public schools that the schools are all 
the time reaching out and, in a grasping way, more 
and more taking unto themselves the sacred rights 
and privileges of the home, even setting themselves 
up in authority over the home, aye, even alienating 
the affections of the children, making the home of 
none effect. Where does the truth lie? Has the 
home been so negligent of its duty, or has the school 
forgotten that it is the creature of the home? Which 
is the usurper? That is an interesting question. We 
can not go into it in detail, but let me suggest that 
it has all come about not so much from the unwar- 
ranted assumption of the school, nor the conscious 
and wilful neglect of the home as from the uncon- 
scious working out of a great principle fundamental 
in human development — namely, that the three 
phases of a child's life — the physical, the moral, and 
the intellectual, — can not be separately developed. 

At first the home had the three lines of work. 
Soon it delegated two of them to other agencies and 
then, thru inexperience or thoughtlessness, made the 
fatal mistake of withdrawing supervision, assuming 
that no oversight was necessary. Unwise and short-- 
sighted! No individual would thus deal with any 
other interest. The farm, the store, the financial 
interest of any kind, even the thing that ministers 
to the pleasure of life, often receives more personal 
attention from the parent than does the school. And 
this situation is not peculiar to our own day. When 
I was a boy, in another and distant state, we used 
to sing a song called "The Parent and the School." 
The various verses showed that parents were in the 



The Home, the Church, and the School 153 

habit of visiting every other known place — *the 
theater, the concert, the fair, the sea, the neighbors, 
and each verse closed with the refrain, "And why 
don't they visit the school?" They should, but they 
did not then, nor do they to-day. Somehow, all along 
the line, the home has seemed to think that if it 
should satisfy the physical needs of the child in 
providing food and clothing and shelter, the school 
should develop the intellectual and the church the 
moral natures in different places and at different 
times, and under different conditions, and that in 
some mysterious manner the three could become sat- 
isfactorily blended into a harmonious life. Impos- 
sible ! The three natures are so clearly interrelated, 
each depends so much upon the others, that the 
separate and independent development of any one is 
impossible. 

The spiritual depends upon the intellectual as the 
house rests upon the foundation. Its mental pic- 
tures, its concepts, its beliefs, come out of it, and 
are marred, misshapen, untrue, just to the extent to 
which that is faulty. Intelligence is necessary to 
religious belief and religious life. And the intellec- 
tual, in its foundation laying, can not stop short at 
that point any more than a plant can stop growing 
when its roots are well developed. The process once 
well begun is pushed on by the force from behind and 
must enter the higher realm. So I am not surprised 
that the school at times seems to be in charge of the 
entire work. And physical conditions have so much 
to do with success in both fields that they must be 
considered by both. The three processes are not only 
interrelated, they are interlaced, intertwined, as the 
strands of a braided cord. And just as the cord 



154 On the Firing Line in Education 

would be incomplete, just as it would lack strength, 
if any of the strands were to be omitted, or if the 
braiding were to be haphazard, so the life would be 
incomplete, one-sided, weak, should these three 
processes not go on side by side under the fostering 
care of an intelligent unifying agency. Indeed, if 
there is any one thing that has been demonstrated 
beyond the peradventure of a doubt by modern re- 
search in the physical and psychical realms, it is the 
significant fact that life is a unity. The physical, 
the intellectual, and the moral are like the three 
leaves of the clover. And just as with the clover we 
must apply the nourishment to the root and not to 
the separated branches, so with the child we must 
so select and use our educative material that the 
three-fold development shall result from the single 
application. 

A simple illustration or two will help to make the 
point clear. All children study arithmetic in school. 
It is an intellectual activity and so clearly belongs 
to the school. Why do all study it? Because for 
the practical duties of life they need to know how 
to handle numbers. It is a practical study. Yes, 
but there is something else that the subject is sup- 
posed to yield or the extended time given to it could 
not be justified. It yields large fruitage in the de- 
velopment of the power of concentration and intel- 
lectual keenness. Yes, but better than that. All 
mathematical subjects, in that they require absolute 
accuracy and definiteness in their operations, are 
particularly helpful in developing those fine moral 
qualities of honesty, integrity, and upright dealing. 
Again, history is taught in the schools as an intel- 
lectual subject. In intellectual development alone 



The Home, the Church, and the School 155 

it is worth all it costs. But over and above the value 
as a mental quickener it is to be placed as a builder 
of character, and ministering to the development of 
the moral and even the spiritual life. Nowhere else 
can the young so well learn that "righteousness ex- 
alteth a nation" and that "sin is a reproach to any 
people." In no other way so well as by the study of 
history can desired examples of noble character be 
placed before the young for imitation. Take but 
one other illustration, that of gymnastics and ath- 
letics — the entire program of play. For physical 
development? Yes, but in addition to that and finer 
than that, intellectual development of a high order 
thru the keener activity of the senses, the quicker 
and more accurate vision, the developed judgment, 
and finer discriminations. Yes, but better even than 
mere intellectual keenness there result from such 
activities the rare moral qualities of tolerance, re- 
spect for others, and self-control. And so I might 
go on and give illustration after illustration. It is 
not necessary. You catch my point. I am merely 
trying to demonstrate two facts : first, that the great 
breadth of the work of the school — embracing as it 
does, the development of the entire nature of the 
child, mental, moral, and physical, instead of merely 
the mental, that which was given her at first, is hers 
now not because of the home's neglect nor because 
the school has been unduly ambitious and grasping, 
but because we have come to see that life is a unity 
and can not be cut up into parts each separately de- 
veloped. And secondly, I have tried to show that 
the school does interest itself in the moral life of 
the pupil. As a matter of fact, the school does 
more to develop morality and to lead toward a sane 



156 On the Firing Line in Education 

religious life than all other agencies combined. Our 
modern American school is a wonderful institution. 

But in spite of the fact that the school is broad in 
its ministrations, it can not stand alone. All three 
institutions are needed. But the three must work 
together and in harmony and intelligently, each as- 
sisting the others. And one of the three must act 
as the centralizing, the unifying, the combining 
agency and bring order out of that which would 
otherwise be chaos by recognizing the value of each 
contribution of each of the others, assigning it to 
its proper place and thus aptly blending the work 
of the three. Now, which shall be the centralizing 
force? Really, is there any question? Must it not 
be the original institution — the home — the one which 
saw the need of the others and called them into being 
— the one upon which the responsibility finally rests ? 
And even tho many individual homes are weak, 
wholly incapable of doing themselves all the varied 
kinds of work needed, yet the collective institution 
can and must act. And even the individual home, 
efficient or inefficient, should, much more than it does, 
thus act within the limits of its own jurisdiction and 
up to the limits of its own power. 

And to whom does the school belong, anyway? To 
the Board of Education? Is it the private posses- 
sion of the teachers? Does it exist to give teachers 
positions ? Why, no, of course not. It is yours, and 
yours, and yours. They, both Board and teachers, 
are your servants, hired men and women, if you and 
they please — hired for pay to do your work, just as 
much as are the clerks in your stores, the harvest 
hands on the farms, or the maids in the kitchen. A 
different kind of work to be sure but, nevertheless, 



The Home, the Church, and the School 157 

we are workmen for pay. And we need watching 
just as much as do the other workers. But let us 
put it in this way — we need intelligent, sympathetic 
co-operation, as an opportunity and as a spur for 
our best work and as a joy in it all — your constant 
kindly interest and your intelligent co-operation. I 
suppose that the situation is quite different in a city 
of this size from what it is in the large centers. I 
remember of talking, at one time, to an audience of 
teachers in a large city. I was astounded to learn 
that those teachers did not know, by sight even, the 
parents of one-half of their pupils, and many of 
them had been in the schools for a period of from 
three to four years. Whose fault was it? The 
teacher's or the parents? Why, what is the school? 
And whose is it? And what is it for? Whose fault 
was it? The question does not need an answer. It 
answers itself. But I urged those teachers to visit 
the homes — to become acquainted with the parents 
of their pupils so that they could know the at- 
mosphere surrounding them and thus be better able 
to guide their development and minister to their 
varied needs. But I did not thus urge them because 
they had, up to that time, neglected their duty, 
rather because there seemed no prospect that the 
homes would embrace their opportunity and take 
the initiative. 

I fancy that here in the smaller place where every- 
body knows everybody it is very different. Doubt- 
less there is not a teacher here whose acquaintance 
has not been made by both parents of every child in 
her or his room. Probably there is not one who 
has not been entertained in every home represented 
in the room. This should be the situation not pri- 



158 On the Firing Line in Education 

marily because parents owe teachers such attention, 
not because any such social responsibility rests upon 
them, but rather because the relationship thus 
created gives parents the best possible opportunity 
to co-operate with the school in doing that portion 
of the home's great work. No, parents do not "owe" 
it to the teachers, rather do they "owe" it to their 
children and the next generation. I am urging this 
program because it is the only way by which you 
can get the most and best service from the schools. 

It is true that parents may not understand all 
the subjects that are taught in the schools. Par- 
ents may not be acquainted with the methods of 
teaching so that they can be intelligent critics of 
schoolroom procedure. Never mind. That is not 
necessary. You do know boys and girls. Many of 
you could give us teachers valuable suggestions on 
the best ways of dealing with boys and girls. And 
there isn't one of you who could not assist the 
teacher in the work with your own children. And 
then there is another way to look upon it. It is 
altogether possible that this closer acquaintance 
with the school and with the teachers — with men and 
women who have made a careful, scientific study of 
boys and girls and of the art of teaching — it is al- 
together possible, I say, that this contact might 
react helpfully upon you and the home. You might 
possibly get suggestions from us that would help 
you in the home. The closer contact might be 
mutually helpful. 

And so, in this necessarily hurried manner we have 
passed in review these three great age-old yet very 
modern institutions — the home, the church, and the 
school. We have seen whence each has arisen, have 



The Home, the Church, and the School 159 

noted the pathway trod, and caught a glimpse of its 
present-day function. And the close relationship, 
too, must have become plain as we passed along. No 
one of the three, we have seen, could stand alone. 
Each depends upon both the others and likewise 
lends them both assistance. For sane, all-round, con- 
structive work in any one field, the contributions of 
all are seen to be needed. 

Let us, therefore, take an account of stock, as the 
business man says, and note our individual attitude 
and responsibility. As representing the home, let 
us look upon the other two as creatures of our own 
building still requiring direction and fostering care. 
Let our attitude toward them be neither patronizing 
nor coldly critical. As representing the church and 
the school, let us not forget the source of our 
being. We should not ignore the home nor attempt 
to dominate it. Let us, rather, seek to carry out its 
program, rendering a good account of our stew- 
ardship. Thus and thus only can the great work 
originally entrusted to the home be accomplished. 



VI 
NOBLESSE OBLIGE 



A Convocation Address delivered at the University 
of North Dakota, January 29, 1916 



VI 
NOBLESSE OBLIGE 

THERE is no audience before which a speaker 
should have greater reason for apprehension 
than an audience made up largely of university stu- 
dents. There is no audience for which a speaker 
should more carefully choose his thoughts and the 
words for their expression than a university audi- 
ence, nor one more worthy of earnest treatment. On 
the other hand, there is no audience that a speaker 
can address more inspiring than an audience made 
up of young men and women in the heyday of 
young life preparing for better and larger use- 
fulness. 

All this is true because there is no other audience 
that can be gathered together whose future work 
can begin to compare, in far-reaching consequences, 
in possibilities for usefulness, with that of such an 
audience. There is no other company of people of 
equal number within whose keeping there is more of 
potential weal or woe for coming generations. And 
these things are true because university students of 
to-day are the world's leaders of to-morrow. 

This is not so trite a saying as the one that de- 
clares that the boys and girls of one generation are 
to be the men and women of the next, but it is just as 
true and just as significant. Indeed, I suppose it can 
not be called a trite saying in the true sense of the 

163 



164 On the Firing Line in Education 

term. It has not been uttered so many times, is not 
now being used so commonly, as to indicate its uni- 
versal acceptance. It is not so obviously true as to 
preclude challenge and argument. It is my purpose 
very briefly to examine the statement and from the 
conclusion reached connect the same with the 
thought of a beautiful proverb that has come down 
to us thru a long lapse of years — Noblesse Oblige — 
our privileges compel us. 

So far as I know there is no way of seeing the 
future save thru a study of the facts of the past and 
the indications of the present. The university 
students of a generation ago — where are they to- 
day? Positions of leadership to-day — filled by 
whom ? 

Exhaustive and thoroly satisfactory statistics are 
not at hand, but such as we have speak eloquently in 
favor of the statement in question. Practically our 
only reliable statistics touching the matter are 
gathered from our biographical cyclopedias. A few 
years ago a very interesting study was made of the 
data found in the current issue of Who's Who in 
America. This book, you know, is made up of short 
biographies of such persons living at the time in the 
United States as have become real factors in the 
progress and achievement of the age, in other words, 
of men recognized as leaders in thought and action 
in the educational, political, military, and business 
realms. 

Of the whole number mentioned in the issue 
studied educational data were given of 11,019. Of 
that number 1,111 had enjoyed only elementary 
school advantages ; 1,966 had added to these only the 
advantages of secondary education, but 7,942 had 



Noblesse Oblige 165 

come from the colleges and universities. In other 
words, more than 72% of these leaders are shown to 
have received their final preparations for leadership 
within college walls. 

Figures as interesting have been gathered thru 
a use of Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography. A 
few years ago careful study was made of an edition 
just then out and it was found that of the college 
graduates of America one out of every forty had 
gained sufficient distinction to merit recognition in 
that cyclopedia, whereas only one out of 10,000 non- 
graduates, the public at large, had received such dis- 
tinction. In other words, the college graduate had 
250 chances to the other man's one for achieving 
leadership. 

Moreover, the higher institutions of learning have 
furnished every one of the Chief Justices of our 
Supreme Court, 75% of our Presidents, 70% of the 
membership of our two highest courts, and more 
than 50% of all our Congressmen. The last state- 
men is very significant when one recalls our method 
of selecting Congressmen — our political machinery 
and its devious modes of working. I have no authen- 
tic data of other fields, but all that one needs to do 
to satisfy himself practically as to other details is 
to call to his service his own knowledge of the gen- 
eral situation. In the communities with which you 
are acquainted, among the people whom you know 
either personally or by reputation, what are the 
facts ? Who are the leaders ? Where college people 
are found, are they leaders or followers? 

There are exceptions, of course. There come to 
you at once the names of men, a few of them, who, 
thru the exercise of their own inherent strength, un- 



166 On the Firing Line in Education 

aided by college or university, have risen to deserved 
greatness. I have only to mention the names of our 
immortal Lincoln, or England's present David Lloyd 
George, in the field of statesmanship, or of Lord 
Strathcona or Sir William Van Home, or James J. 
Hill, railroad kings and empire builders, in the busi- 
ness world, or of Luther Burbank, in the realm of 
science, to make the fact of exceptions perfectly 
clear. But they are exceptions — that's the point — 
and exceptions merely prove the rule. 

And even as to the few it is scarcely necessary to 
say that their positions, tho of leadership, are, gen- 
erally speaking, subordinate ones, they themselves 
even while leading in certain limited fields, are fol- 
lowing the leadership of others in broader fields 
which include their own — and the ones followed are 
they of the broader training. This is especially true 
of men who have achieved success in the business 
world or in the political field. Their success, their 
leadership, is often more seeming than real, — depend- 
ing as it does upon their advisers — broadly edu- 
cated men. Take Lord Strathcona, for example, or 
Mr. Hill, as typical illustrations ; with all their far- 
sightedness and their recognized ability, what could 
they have done, even in their own field of activity, 
had it not been for the trained physicist, the skilled 
chemist, and the engineer — products of the univer- 
sity — who gave them their rails, built their bridges, 
designed their engines, and in many ways made it 
possible for them to realize their dreams? They 
would have been powerless. Tho leaders, they fol- 
lowed, and their kind always will follow, the uni- 
versity student. They may hire this student and 
pay him his wage, but they are still indebted to him 
for leading them onward and upward. 



Noblesse Oblige 167 

From a hasty survey, therefore, which, however, 
I am satisfied would yield the same fruitage no mat- 
ter to what extent pushed, our statement seems to 
be justified. 

But let us look at it from another point of view. 
How is the matter regarded by those of the present 
time most deeply interested in the future well-being 
of man and of the nations of the world? By those 
people and those forces who feel the responsibility 
of providing leadership for the next generation? 
What steps are being taken to reach the end — to 
provide the leaders? On any hypothesis other than 
the one assumed in my initial statement can you ac- 
count for the lavish expenditure for the endowment 
and maintenance of higher institutions of learning 
that so characterize our generation? From one side 
to the other of our broad land, aye, from distant 
lands and from the isles of the sea comes the same 
testimony: benevolent individuals seem to vie with 
one another in the munificence of their gifts for 
higher education. Even soveren states and great 
nations, under the guidance of far-seeing leaders, 
are planting these institutions and, in a truly gen- 
erous manner, providing for their present and future 
needs. 

That the college is the only source from whence 
can come our supply of leaders is a real conviction 
in the minds of men the world over, is shown by a re- 
cent incident in war-stricken Europe. It was only a 
few months ago and during the terrible campaign in 
Eastern Poland, even while shells were bursting and 
men were dying, that the Central Powers stopt, as 
it were, in the mad rush of wanton destruction, to re- 
establish and reorganize the old University of War- 
saw. More than that, they added to the old insti- 



168 On the Firing Line in Education 

tution two new faculties, or colleges, as we would 
call them. 

Strange, isn't it? In the incident I can see but 
this logic: a recognition of the fact that, with the 
forces of destruction reaping such an awful harvest, 
their civilization was doomed unless some step could 
be taken, not, primarily, to check the present war 
but rather to provide, at its close, an adequate sup- 
ply of leaders. That seemed to them the only way 
to prevent a permanent impoverishment and a drop- 
ping back into a state of, at least, temporary semi- 
barbarism as was so common during the early Middle 
Ages under analogous circumstances. And the step 
taken by those shrewd, coldly-calculating war lords 
was the strengthening of the forces of higher educa- 
tion. One reason why, during the Middle Ages, 
there was this frequent dropping back is the fact 
that this relationship between leadership and edu- 
cation was not recognized. 

Under the powerful impulse of this conviction, 
namely, that the well-equipt college as a part of the 
broad university community is the only source of 
leadership, men and states and provinces and nations 
are sacrificing for higher education as never before. 
New institutions are being founded and old ones 
strengthened. Magnificent buildings are being 
erected with seemingly little thought of cost pro- 
vided only that they serve their purpose. Libraries 
so thoroly equipt as to leave nothing desired, labora- 
tories unsurpast in completeness, vast gymnasiums 
containing every possible apparatus for bodily de- 
velopment, and other facilities of every kind and 
description, all irrespective of cost, are daily being 
added. And better than buildings and grounds, more 



Noblesse Oblige 169 

vital than equipment and endowment, are the trained 
minds and pure hearts that, in ever increasing num- 
bers, are being freely offered on the same shrine. 
Abilities, and training, and attainments that in the 
world of business would yield their possessors inde- 
pendent fortunes, or in the fields of authorship or 
politics result in honor and fame, are here freely 
offered. The material return rendered for such 
service is the merest pittance absolutely needed for 
family support, and the immaterial, but one's en- 
shrinement in the heart of an occasional grateful 
student plus the consciousness of having done one's 
duty. Can such a generous outpouring of material 
and spiritual treasures be accounted for on any 
hypothesis other than a recognition of the great 
world's needs and a firm belief that those needs can 
be best satisfied thru an educated leadership? Nay, 
verily, all these things are being done because the 
best thought of the day feels, both instinctively and 
with reason, that only thus can the kingdom of God 
come among men. 

What unique, important, and responsible position 
the State or Provincial University occupies among 
civic institutions! What splendid opportunities for 
usefulness are his who is the executive head of such 
an institution ! Aye, and what weighty responsibili- 
ties rest upon him! Fellow teachers, what manifold 
opportunities for usefulness are yours, and what 
weighty responsibilities rest upon you by virtue of 
the fact that you are teachers in such an institu- 
tion ! And my message to you is the same as to the 
student body — Noblesse Oblige! Freely have you re- 
ceived, freely must you give. Tho the state does 
not, nor ever can, adequately pay you for your 



170 On the Firing Line in Education 

best services, still you must not falter. You must 
continue to live up to your own high ideals of your 
noble profession. The very acceptance of such 
positions in such an institution carries with it the 
obligation of performance — Noblesse Oblige! 

But who are these college and university students 
who have such a large and important future before 
them and for whose training and development, be- 
cause of that future, such elaborate preparations 
are being made? The university man — who and 
what is he? Likewise the university woman? Let 
us answer the question simply and briefly by merely 
saying that, tho sometimes rude and crude because 
immature and undeveloped, they are yet the keenest, 
the brightest, the most far-seeing, the most prom- 
ising young men and women of the land. They are 
the choice souls found, one here, another there, one 
in the hamlet and another on the farm, one in the 
city and another on the prairie, one in a palace, an- 
other in a sod house. They are a picked lot selected 
not only from the so-called upper ranks of thought 
and action, but as well from the highways and by- 
ways of our broad land, chosen because of intellec- 
tual strength and moral fiber, because of high ideals 
and lofty purposes ; chosen by themselves, it may be 
true, but chosen nevertheless, thru their equipment 
of mind and heart. The very fact that you are here 
and others are not is testimony sufficient to your 
greater worth. Exceptions, to be true, there are, 
but none too many prove the rule. I am not saying 
these things in a spirit of flattery, not at all. I am 
merely stating facts, and thru these facts trying to 
help you catch the vision — to see your opportunity 
and accept the responsibilities. But note the sig- 



Noblesse Oblige 171 

nificance — those already best equipt by the superior 
quality of their brain matter and of their mental 
fiber and of their moral nature and who therefore 
without further preparation would easily distance 
the others, are here giving themselves even better 
equipment. There can be no question as to the 
relative position of the two classes in the years to 
come — the one class is to furnish the leaders, the 
other the followers. The one is to form the ideals, 
to set the standards, to decide upon policies, to mark 
out courses, the other to try to reach the goals set. 
The two classes may be equally good morally, equally 
worthy of respect and honor because equally faithful 
in the performance of duties suited to their tastes 
and abilities, but yet, from the very nature of things, 
the one going ahead, the other following behind. And 
in the years to come your competitors will be not 
from among the non-college men and women — you 
have already put yourself out of their reach — but 
from among those who, like yourselves, ambitious for 
better and greater things, are to-day, in this and 
other similar institutions, using every means, strain- 
ing every nerve, to attain the highest possible degree 
of efficiency for future service. You are not only 
to be leaders, but in some way you seem to know 
it instinctively and to be putting yourselves in a 
state of readiness. 

But does some one raise the objection that this 
theory of leadership does not seem to be in harmony 
with the spirit and genius of our American institu- 
tions ; that under a democratic form of government, 
all are equal; that all men, irrespective of intellec- 
tual attainment, share equally, not only before the 
law but in the very making of law ; that in America 



172 On the Firing Line in Education 

all men are rulers ? All this is true theoretically and, 
to a certain extent, practically, but it does not les- 
sen the need of efficient leadership; it increases that 
need, or, at any rate, it makes it necessary that the 
number capable of efficient leadership be greatly in- 
creased. The very fact that all have a voice in the 
government, that all do share, consciously and po- 
tently, in its exercise and in its responsibilities, 
speaks more loudly than anything else can of the 
need of wise leadership. If the great mass of people 
were not factors, they would not have to be taken 
into account. They might need drivers but not 
leaders. But being factors and yet, in the main, not 
being capable of adequate analysis of our most com- 
plex and highly intricate problems, they must be 
provided with safe and efficient leaders. I believe in 
the honesty, in the good intentions, and in the good 
sense of the common people. But I do not believe in 
their ability to detect relations, to draw wise con- 
clusions, and to formulate policies touching the com- 
plicated political, social, and economic conditions of 
our times. 

It is a well-recognized fact that, as some one has 
said, "speaking broadly, the striking disadvantage 
under which a democracy labors, as contrasted, let 
us say, with certain types of autocracy, lies in its 
inability to plan effectively with reference to remote 
goals. . . . What we call 'far ahead' thinking 
is difficult for the individual, but it is vastly more 
difficult for the group, and its difficulty is intensified 
in both cases if it demands large measures of present 
sacrifice." No, democracy must be led. Leaders 
they must have. If honest and disinterested ones are 
not at hand, selfish and dishonest ones will be ac- 



Noblesse Oblige 173 

cepted. I grant that leadership is not the greatest 
need of democracy, that, of course, is a higher level 
of knowledge and intelligence, but I do claim that 
leadership is, and always will be, the greatest present 
need of democracy, since it is only thru that leader- 
ship that the higher intelligence can be reached, 
without loss, and in the shortest possible time. 

But again, do you point out certain great vic- 
tories of the common people, so-called, when they 
have risen in the power of their might and, in the 
exercise of their right, have put down men who had 
assumed the right to lead them and were leading 
them astray? Do you point to the State of Missouri 
of a decade ago* and to New York City again and 
again, and to England a generation ago, as illus- 
trations? True, in all these cases and in many 
others, notable victories had been gained by and for 
the people. But is it not also true that in every such 
case the people won victories because wisely led? 
Think you that corruption and violation of law 
would have been so checked in Missouri a decade ago 
and the breakers of law been so thoroly punished, 
had it not been for the clear-headed work of that 
fearless, public-spirited Joseph W. Folk? Does not 
Charles S. Whitman come to your mind when the 
great struggle in New York City is mentioned? And 
Hiram W. Johnson in California ? And when we re- 
call the victories of the people in our own Mother- 
land across the sea, do we not have at once a mental 
picture of the "Grand Old Man," William Ewart 
Gladstone? Had it not been for these leaders or 
others who might else have taken their places, half 
of the people whose votes helped win the victories 
would never have known that there were such vie- 



174 On the Firing Line in Education 

tories to win. They would never have realized the 
extent to which they were being wronged and mis- 
ruled. 

Certain conditions were not quite satisfactory. 
All people felt, half unconsciously, that rights were 
not being respected, that justice was not being done 
— that something was wrong somewhere — but that 
was about all, about as far as they went or could go. 
But these leaders, who, in years gone by, in the col- 
leges and the universities, had been trained to search 
for causes, to see relations, and to draw conclusions, 
had scented danger from afar. And to the task of 
ferreting out the evil and of finding remedies they 
devoted the strength of their splendidly equipt minds 
and the purity of their strong hearts. Following up 
the lead of surface manifestations they finally un- 
earthed corporate greed, political domination, and 
Satanic selfishness in such kinds and amounts as to 
be really appalling. But they did not stop there — 
they searched for remedies and then went before the 
people and told them a plain simple tale of what they 
had found — of how grossly the people were being 
wronged — and they outlined programs of reform. 
The people believed them; they rallied to their 
standards, accepted their leadership, and won the 
victories. And such victories, in greater or less 
degree, are being won all over the land, thank God ! 
And back of every one of them you can find, if you 
search, a smaller or larger edition of Folk, Whit- 
man, or Gladstone. 

And how about the future? Are all the victories 
won? No more such work to do? Ah! the question 
does not need an answer. Then who are to be the 
leaders? Why not you? and you? and you? De- 



Noblesse Oblige 175 

pend upon it, they are going to be college men and 
college women, and who more capable or worthy than 
yourselves ? 

There are two ways in which I want you young 
people to look upon this matter; in the first place, 
from the point of view of your own personal inter- 
ests. Here are opportunities for advancement, open- 
ings the filling of which will bring to you worldly 
success, and honor and fame. Both by natural en- 
dowment and by special training you are fitted for 
the work. Seize, then, the opportunities and make 
the most of them, because the world and they that 
dwell therein belong to him who knows how to use 
them. From one point of view this is perfectly legiti- 
mate, and I urge it. It is not only one's right but 
one's duty to make the most of himself — to advance 
his own interests. The program becomes censurable 
only when it absorbs all else — when one's own inter- 
est is sought at the expense of the interest of other 
people instead of in connection with it or as a step 
in its realization. 

Now, the other way in which I want you to regard 
the matter is from the point of view of the interests 
of the people at large. Let me put it like this : here 
is your body politic, the people of North Dakota, 
600,000 strong, or, better yet, the people of the 
United States, some hundred million in number, part- 
ners in ownership of our magnificent country, co- 
laborers in its administration, and sharers in the 
work of their own government and in the working 
out of their destinies — each with a share and an in- 
fluence and each expected to participate. But so 
complicated are the matters needing consideration, 
so difficult of solution many of the problems arising, 



176 On the Firing Line in Education 

and so infinitely vast the whole undertaking that 
the great majority of the people, thru either imma- 
turity or lack of training, often do not know what 
is best to do. And again, skilful manipulators, dis- 
honest self-seekers, are ever at hand with plausible 
theories calculated to befog the untrained, deceive 
the unsuspecting, and to lead them all astray. Tak- 
ing everything into consideration, the situation is 
extremely difficult. In a plain word, these untrained 
people, the product of the elementary schools, can 
not see far enough ahead to know that oftentimes 
the policy that seems most attractive is full of danger 
for the future. They are not qualified to weigh, 
and estimate, and decide. But there is a class among 
them, college-bred men and women, a small class, 
relatively, that is qualified. Thru long years of 
study, and investigation, and reflection, in institu- 
tions freely provided and generously maintained by 
the people now in need, they have attained such a 
knowledge of affairs and such an ability to cope with 
intricate problems as to make them efficient leaders 
— leaders capable of guiding aright the noble ship 
of state thru difficult and tortuous channels beset, on 
every side, by dangerous rocks and calamitous whirl- 
pools. And among that class of efficient leaders you, 
young men and young women of the University of 
North Dakota, will soon be numbered. How shall 
you respond to the call of duty? Your State, by 
virtue of what she has done and is now doing for 
you, has a right to expect unselfishness and un- 
stinted sendee in her own interests and in those of 
mankind. Shall she get it ? Will you rise to the oc- 
casion and, even at a sacrifice of personal comfort, 
ease, esthetic enjoyment, money, give to her what is 



Noblesse Oblige 177 

her due? Will you remember Noblesse Oblige? Of 
course you will. For there is a well-established prin- 
ciple, clearly stated in Holy Writ and sanctioned by 
the ages, that of those to whom much hath been 
given, much will also be required. Noblesse Oblige — 
your privileges compel you. 

Because the theory of the old motto, "Paucis vivat 
humanum genus" "for the few live the many," is 
no longer maintained. The many do not live for the 
few. The reverse is true. The few live for the 
many. But yet, the service is not unrewarded — only 
a portion of the reward has come first. In your 
equipment you are being paid in advance. David 
Starr Jordan has happily clothed the thought in 
these words: "It is in the saving of the few who 
serve the many that the progress of civilization lies. 
In the march of the common man, and in the influence 
of the man uncommon who rises freely from the 
ranks, we have all of history that counts." 

And here I might stop. But a general statement, 
more or less abstract, needs practical illustration: 
the "how," the "when," and the "where" are per- 
fectly legitimate questions for you to ask. Let us 
then throw a hasty glance upon some of the great 
activities that claim men's attention, and discover 
some of the openings awaiting you. 

The teaching profession will draw heavily upon 
your ranks — that profession, full and rich in oppor- 
tunities for usefulness beyond any and all others, is 
more and more looking for you, and waiting im- 
patiently for your full equipment and thoro readi- 
ness. All of the higher positions must come to you 
and others like you. No others are, or will be, ade- 
quately prepared. In nearly all of our states the 



178 On the Firing Line in Education 

legal requirement for a high school teacher and, of 
course, for the high school principal and city super- 
intendent is the completion of a full four-year col- 
lege course including a certain specified amount of 
professional work. In some of the states, indeed, 
the requirement is of a full year beyond the under- 
graduate course, or the possession of a Master's de- 
gree, with the emphasis of this added year thrown 
upon the subjects to be taught and the manner of 
handling the same. 

So the facts are borne upon us that the desk of 
the high school principal, the office of the city super- 
intendent, the chair of the college professor, the 
position of college and university president, is soon 
to be offered you. Are you ready for it? ready in 
academic equipment? ready in professional attain- 
ment? And are you equally well prepared in that 
even finer element — the possession of your soul by 
the spirit of Noblesse Oblige? 

I can not say, of course, to which of you here 
to-day a college presidency is to be offered, nor the 
professor's chair, nor any other specific position. 
Nor can I say just when the offer will come. But I 
can say, and with assurance, that all these positions 
and all others of leadership in the educational field 
will be offered to college men and college women, and 
in all probability as soon as they are well ready for 
them. Moreover, it can doubtless be said that they 
will be apportioned fairly on the basis of merit and 
fitness. And then you will have in your hands the 
shaping of the destinies of a great free people with 
all the emoluments, the opportunities, and the re- 
sponsibilities that should accompany a work of such 
moment. 



Noblesse Oblige 179 

And the Gospel ministry can no longer look else- 
where. If it is to continue to wield its mighty in- 
fluence for good, and to play its magnificent role 
of leadership in our developing civilization, especially 
among our rapidly increasing educated classes, it 
must more and more come into its rightful inherit- 
ance, so long withheld, of that broader conception 
of brotherhood and Christianity that forgets the 
letter of the law in magnifying its spirit — that puts 
life before dogma and character before creed. And 
this, fellow students, can never be without the broad 
university equipment. 

We have traveled far during these latter years. 
And no longer do we consider it sufficient that the 
minister of the Gospel know merely his Bible and 
his theology. In addition to these, aye, as a basis 
for these, it is now demanded (that is, if he be ac- 
corded a position of real leadership among thinking 
people) that he know as well his history and his 
sociology, his psychology and his biology, and in- 
deed that he be acquainted with all the fields of hu- 
man knowledge. Not only that, he must know life as 
it is lived to-day, and the thoughts and emotions of 
men as they are manifested in the give and take of 
actual life. And none of these can be obtained within 
the narrow confines of the old theological seminary. 
The modern university is the only institution in 
which the minister of the future can get it all and 
get it in the right order and in the correct admixture. 
In the laboratories, the libraries, and the classrooms 
he will delve deeply into the realms of science, litera- 
ture, and art, and there and on the campus, in its 
varied activities, touch hands and exchange thoughts 
with the future lawyer, teacher, physician, engineer, 



180 On the Firing Line in Education 

business man, what-not, and thus gain tolerance, 
humility, catholicity of spirit, and the spirit of true 
democracy. 

Thus circumstanced during his preparatory years, 
he will go out capable of seeing things in their proper 
perspective. That's the kind of man that the min- 
istry is calling to-day, and the call will be louder and 
more incessant as the years pass and the education of 
the people progresses. That's the kind of man we 
already have in some of our leading pulpits, and 
they are exerting a tremendous influence in all de- 
partments of life. But the supply is limited. 
There's not enough to go around. Many more are 
needed. Our universities must furnish them. Will 
this institution do its share? Will some of you 
young men, with your well-trained bodies, with your 
finely-disciplined minds, with your highly-cultured 
natures, with that fine balance of powers that means 
so much and that can accomplish so much for the 
world if thus used — will' you turn aside from the 
beaten path that would be sure to lead to fame and 
power and worldly success and enter the more difficult 
but more useful field of the Christian ministry for the 
simple purpose of serving mankind? You are the 
kind of men we want, and I am sure that you will not 
disappoint us. 

And so I might go on, did time permit, and point 
out attractive and responsible openings in many 
different activities — the fields of engineering and 
journalism, the professions of medicine and law, the 
great world of business, even politics (should I not 
say, rather, and especially politics?). It is not neces- 
sary to go farther into detail. You catch my 
thought. In one and all of these, positions of leader- 



Noblesse Oblige 181 

ship are calling loudly for men and women of large 
knowledge, of trained minds, of broad outlook, and 
of splendid visions ; and these characteristics are the 
fruitage of nothing less than the broad and compre- 
hensive foundations laid in the college and the uni- 
versity. And you who have them are, by the very 
fact of possession, under obligation to use them for 
the public weal. How is it, young man, young 
woman? Are you going to mesure up to the 
twentieth century standard? Will you carry with 
you from this hall when you leave to-day, and from 
this institution when she honors you with her 
diploma, and out into the great activities of life, — 
will you carry with you, I ask, and make the basis of 
your actions in life, the thought of these two little 
words that have been engaging our attention this 
morning — Noblesse Oblige? 



VII 
IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



A Paper read before the Commercial Club of Grand 
Forks, North \Dakota, January &£, 1911, and 
printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Her- 
ald" January 29, 1911 



VII 
IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

IN accepting an invitation to speak upon the topic 
assigned, "Improvements in Our Public Schools," 
I come not as a hostile critic, not even as an impar- 
tial observer viewing and commenting upon some- 
thing belonging to another. Rather, I come as a 
sympathetic friend to talk about an institution in 
which I am vitally interested and of whose good 
work I am proud. Indeed, I am to discuss a great 
business industry, if you please, in which you and 
I are joint stockholders and for whose success we 
are alike responsible. And, too, I have been for so 
many years a teacher and so closely connected with 
educational work that I feel akin to every other 
man and woman engaged in that occupation. Know- 
ing how easy it is to make mistakes and thus fall 
short of attaining our high ideals in this most try- 
ing and most difficult work, I am temperamentally 
inclined to magnify the difficulties and to overlook 
the shortcomings of educational workers. To be 
sure, in speaking upon "Improvements," I am admit- 
ting that improvements are possible. But the best 
friend of a person or an institution is one who talks 
frankly and honestly, admitting weaknesses, if such 
there be, and suggesting assistance. Such an atti- 
tude can not well be interpreted as a criticism either 
of men or mesures. 

185 



186 On the Firing Line in Education 

A gentleman met me on the street a day or two 
ago and said, "I understand that you are going to 
find fault with our schools next Tuesday night. 
What for? I want you to understand that our 
schools are all right. Let well enough alone." A 
few days ago one of the local papers said of the 
schools, "The public schools of Grand Forks are 
recognized as the finest in the Northwest and the 
school system is up-to-date in every respect." 

And that idea seems to be chronic. Such expres- 
sions are common in our papers and from many of 
our people. The impression sought to be given is 
doubtless that of "Let well enough alone," or 
"Hands off." Now, Mr. Chairman, while this feel- 
ing clearly betokens a general confidence in the man- 
agement of the schools of which those directly in 
charge may well take pride, nevertheless, it is not 
an altogether healthy condition of affairs. 

While I believe in a wise conservatism as against 
an unthinking radicalism, I am in no sense of the 
term a "stand-patter." The individual who has 
earned this picturesque title, I care not whether in 
the halls of Congress or in the ranks of the edu- 
cators, is a foe to progress. A "stand-patter" is 
such because he is in a rut and either too lazy or too 
corrupt to get out. 

Things ought not to remain long as they are in 
any business, in any enterprise, in any institution. 
Civilization never stands still. The most dangerous 
attitude of mind that a man can hold is that of com- 
placency, that of perfect satisfaction with things as 
they are. The good is always a foe to the best. 

No, gentlemen, our schools are not "up-to-date in 
every respect," not altogether the "finest" in the 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 187 

great Northwest. The Northwest, you know, is a 
pretty big place and has some pretty enterprising 
towns. But no individual town has, in all respects, 
the finest schools in the Northwest, or in any other 
place. Our schools are, like those of other cities, 
just a good strong average. Like every other sys- 
tem, it contains some good teachers and some not so 
good ; some up-to-date methods of instruction are be- 
ing used and some which should be improved; some 
features there are to be strongly commended and 
some, doubtless, that should be discontinued. And 
more than this, gentlemen, you have no right to de- 
mand, or expect, from your Superintendent and your 
Board of Education. They will be the very first to 
endorse all that I have admitted above. Indeed, that 
they do not hold that exaggerated opinion is clearly 
apparent from the fact that they are even now con- 
sidering improvements. And may the day never 
dawn when we shall see no needed improvements for 
our public schools ! Should such a time come, it 
would simply mean that in matters educational our 
eyes have become dimmed and that we are rapidly 
falling behind. 

Had the men of this city been "stand-patters" 
touching the city, Grand Forks would not be to-day 
what it is — the surprise and the admiration of every 
intelligent visitor. Were you men here to-night, in 
your civic relationship, "stand-patters," the promise 
of the future would be less bright than it is. Dur- 
ing my early connection with Grand Forks I often 
wondered as to the secret of its enterprise. I was 
not long in discovering, however, that it was found 
in the spirit of this Commercial Club; a spirit, it 
is, of hope, of civic pride, of optimism, yet a spirit 



188 On the Firing Line in Education 

of almost divine discontent. You have all the time 
been proud of your city, but yet not satisfied with it ; 
not satisfied, because you saw visions of a finer city 
into which yours might grow. Your city was not 
up-to-date — to help make it so you needed a street 
railway system; what did you do? Worked for it 
and — got it. Not yet up-to-date? A great audito- 
rium was needed; you put your hand into your 
hip-pocket and lo ! it arises in, what was it, thirty 
days? The goal not even yet in sight? No, be- 
cause better pavement was imperative — and it came. 
Still something lacking? An up-to-date street light- 
ing system — you put some of your men to work on 
it and it is now our pride and our neighbors' de- 
spair. And so I might go on, I do not need to. Only 
let me say that it will be a sad day for Grand Forks 
when we shall think that we have really reached the 
goal — when there is not something toward which 
we are striving. 

I am glad that, in this same spirit, you have now 
turned your gaze to the school house. Let us apply 
there the same principle of free, intelligent discus- 
sion and hearty, generous co-operation, each trying 
to outdo the other in loyalty and generous support, 
hoping, eventually, to make our schools the "fin- 
est in the Northwest," and "up-to-date in every 
respect." 

But this is a pretty big subject for treatment 
in an after-dinner talk of from 15 to 20 minutes. It 
involves so much, embracing within its scope, as it 
may, everything from finance to theology. The very 
function of the school, in the large, might well be 
considered under such a topic, and scores of de- 
tails. I might well talk upon the education of teach- 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 189 

ers as I do before my classes, or upon educational 
psychology — vital subjects all, but scarcely appro- 
priate here. It is, indeed, a large and interesting 
subject, lots of places to catch hold. Manifestly, 
I can treat it only superficially. All that I can do 
is merely in the line of suggestion, trying to direct 
your attention to some of the general features, some- 
what objective in character. 

The first suggestion I have to make is along this 
very line — the greatness, the many-sidedness of the 
educational problem and the need of general com- 
munity intelligence in regard to it. Indeed, there 
are many aspects of the school work, countless num- 
ber of details touching books, courses of study, im- 
mediate and remote ends, as well as the larger philo- 
sophical bases, in which the public is deeply inter- 
ested but imperfectly informed. Many a parent is 
ignorant as to what the schools are trying to do, 
and why? Not comprehending the end in view, un- 
intelligent as to the means being used, and with lit- 
tle time or ability to investigate, friction often arises. 
The public and its educational system, the homes 
and the schools, the teachers and the parents, should 
in some way be brought closer together and an 
opportunity given for their mutual understanding. 
There are various ways in which this opportunity 
is given in different places: thru mothers' meetings, 
in some ; thru home and school societies, in others ; 
thru the establishment of what some call "visiting 
days," in others, etc. Great good is sure to result 
from a systematic use of any one of them. 

But we in Grand Forks are a very busy people; 
clubs and societies without number claim our atten- 
tion and secure our membership ; public meetings 



190 On the Firing Line in Education 

for the discussion of charities, health, morals, foods, 
etc., saying nothing about church and social de- 
mands, are already taking us too often from homes 
in the evening, so that I hesitate to suggest an- 
other such activity even in the interests of so im- 
portant a matter as the public schools. But be- 
lieving very firmly as I do that the largest success 
of our schools can be secured only thru a cordial 
co-operation of the homes and the schools, and be- 
lieving also that this co-operation rests upon intel- 
ligence as to the aims of the schools and the means 
that are being used, I am going to suggest a way 
of meeting the difficulty — namely, the utilization of 
another educational agency of large influence and 
philanthropic spirit — I refer to the Press. It is not 
my purpose to present here an extended eulogy of 
the Press. That is not necessary. You all know 
what a mighty factor it is in shaping public opin- 
ion. I merely call attention to the fact that it is 
an educational institution; that it appeals not, as 
do the schools, to the children, but to the parents 
of the children ; and then that in Grand Forks it 
goes into almost every home in the city. I suggest 
that this agency be used to bring about a frank, 
open discussion, and therefore a better understand- 
ing, of the function and the work of our public 
schools — local, state, and national. For our peo- 
ple, in addition to being busy, are both intelligent 
and enterprising. They know the value of the Press. 
They are great readers. I have been surprised, 
again and again, at the large circulation enjoyed by 
both our enterprising dailies. I have also been sur- 
prised to know how closely all our people keep in 
touch with local happenings chronicled there. An 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 191 

educational column in one or both of the local papers 
in which the work of the schools, from taxation to 
lead pencils, could be discust, would be an innova- 
tion of great value. An open forum, so to speak, 
it might be, in which questions could be asked and 
answered, and also contributions made from the 
larger field of educational effort. Of course I do 
not suggest this as a place for the airing of per- 
sonal feelings, of petty details, of minor matters, 
rather, an opportunity for discussing with and for 
an intelligent and enquiring people great educa- 
tional questions, fundamental principles, and broad, 
humanitarian policies. All such matters, because 
fundamental in the development of civilization and 
because of universal interest, should and could be 
handled with frank simplicity. Such a discussion, 
constructive in character, could not fail of doing 
great good — of being very helpful to teachers and 
parents alike. 

Another suggestion that I want to make and an 
improvement that I am going to urge touches very 
closely the matter of efficiency of systems of edu- 
cation. Now, the efficiency of an educational in- 
stitution or of a system of schools is often mesured 
by the success of those completing its course of 
study — of those profiting, to the full, by all that it 
offers. That is the point of view taken by those 
people who so greatly praise the work of the old 
district school of our boyhood days, "back East." 
They point to this man and that one, men who have 
achieved eminent success, whose only "schooling," 
perhaps, was received in the "little red school house" 
and therefore claim that it was a great institution 
for the making of men. But therein lurks a fallacy. 



192 On the Firing Line in Education 

Great men have issued from the "little red school 
house," it is true, but they became great not be- 
cause of, but in spite of, the fact that the school 
house was "little" and was "red." In pointing to 
such men as these, as products, they forget the great 
silent multitude of boys and girls who were in the 
same "little red school house" but who were never 
heard of after they emerged. The pathetic feature 
of the old district school was the great number 
of children who fell by the wayside. And so, to-day, 
no educational institution should be rated as to effi- 
ciency by considering the success merely of those 
completing its courses. To form a correct estimate 
we must consider as well all those who entered and 
dropt out before completion. 

No system of schools is really efficient in which 
any considerable percentage of the children drop 
out before completing the elementary course of 
study. No system of schools is satisfactorily effi- 
cient which is so managed as to require, or even 
allow, any considerable percentage of the children 
to repeat grades, that is, to fail of promotion, mak- 
ing it necessary to go over the work the second 
time. Or, to put it in other words, in which any 
considerable percentage of the children are doing 
work in grades lower than their ages would suggest. 

This is the matter of retardation of which we 
are hearing so much in these days, and in regard 
to which Grand Forks, as well as other cities, suf- 
fers. In my judgment, there are two main causes 
of retardation: poor teaching and physical defects 
of the children. There are two ways by which sat- 
isfactory teaching can be secured : in the first place, 
by securing the best teachers available, and this, I 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 193 

am very sure, our Board of Education and our 
superintendent always try to do. In the second 
place, by improving the quality of work thus secured 
thru expert supervision on the part of the superin- 
tendent and the principals of the various schools. 
And this I am sure is not done to the extent that 
it might be were matters differently arranged. If 
another suggestion that I shall make later on is 
adopted, however, provision will be made for this 
improvement. 

Physical defects on the part of the children I 
named as the second cause of retardation. And 
the remedy for the major portion of this cause is 
found in my next suggestion — medical inspection of 
our school children. 

Estimating the conditions in Grand Forks on the 
basis of what has been discovered in many other 
places in which medical inspection is in operation, 
from 25% to 80% of the children in our schools are 
suffering from physical defects of some sort that 
interfere, to a greater or less degree, with the work 
of the school. There is no doubt in the minds of 
well-informed people that here is found a very fruit- 
ful cause of retardation, as seen both in grade- 
failure and in early dropping out of school. And 
very many of these defects are removable and, there- 
fore, the retardation preventable. 

Now, the only seemingly valid reason that I have 
ever heard urged against the employment of the 
school physician is that of expense. It does cost 
something, I'll admit. All good things do. The 
necessary expense, however, is often overestimated. 
But let us see if we are not, even in hesitating at 
the expense, whatever it may be, wholly illogical. 



194 On the Firing Line in Education 

The city assumes the duty of educating the young, 
but if many of the young are not in a condition 
to receive that education, should we not logically 
see that the hindrances are removed? We enact 
compulsory attendance laws; should we not, where 
necessary, make it possible for the physically de- 
fective as well as others, to profit by such attend- 
ance? Otherwise, are we not wasting money? 

I have mentioned the expense, but there are two 
ways of looking at that. I am now going to advo- 
cate medical inspection as an economic mesure — 
as a money saver. Every child who repeats a grade 
is costing the city more than it should for its edu- 
cation. That is clearly apparent. How much that 
amounts to, in the aggregate, in Grand Forks, I 
do not know. But it is probably no small item. 
I have no doubt that, in the long run, the saving 
would pay the school physician. And then we should 
be clearly ahead in all the years saved by the va- 
rious children, as well as the greater happiness and 
usefulness directly resulting from the improved sit- 
uation. On the whole, it seems to me and to many 
others with whom I have talked that the next step 
forward that we should ask our Board of Education 
to take is the adoption of medical inspection. 

Another phase of the subject to which I desire 
to call your attention is that of the superintendency. 
And it isn't exactly like the old maid sister telling 
the mother of half a dozen lusty boys how to bring 
them up because, in addition to spending years in 
the study and teaching of educational matters, I 
have occupied the superintendent's office and tried 
to do his work. 

Historically, the superintendent of schools repre- 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 195 

sents a development from the Board of Education, 
not from the teaching body. Originally, he was 
looked upon as the business manager of the Board, 
rather than an educator by profession. Quite specif- 
ically, he was, at first, often one of the regularly 
elected members of the Board, designated by the 
Board to attend to the details of the work, to keep 
the educational machine properly oiled, his selec- 
tion seldom being dictated by any particular quali- 
fication of a professional character. 

But in this matter of education as in other mat- 
ters, great changes have arisen. In those days 
teaching was not looked upon as a profession. It 
was merely a calling, a trade, a temporary activity 
requiring no special preparation. Anybody could 
teach and could teach any subject. Education was 
not recognized as a science. The function of the 
school was merely to give knowledge and it was not 
looked upon, as to-day, as a great social institution, 
largely responsible for the welfare of society and 
even for the stability of government. And as touch- 
ing the child, not interesting itself with the forma- 
tion of right habits of action, with the develop- 
ment of character, in a word, so handling the child 
and his environment as to bring about both the 
normal development of his inner life and the ade- 
quate shaping and preparing of that life to satisfy 
the demands that will later be met. Not at all. 

But great changes have arisen. Education has 
become a science, and its activities, its processes, 
are being based upon definite scientific principles. 
We are to-day demanding a professional prepara- 
tion of all our teachers. We require them to know 
something about the child mind and the laws of its 



196 On the Firing Line in Education 

development. We expect them to know why they 
teach this subject and that, that is, the educational 
values of the various subjects, and the best manner 
of administering this educational food. Education, 
I say, is now looked upon as a science, closely allied 
to and continually assisted by its sister science of 
sociology, definitely based upon and springing out 
of the sciences of psychology and physiology, and 
even having its roots deep down in the sub-soil of 
biology. 

Together with this change of thought as to the 
function and work of the school, there has been a 
corresponding change as to the superintendent and 
his work. While we are not completely emanci- 
pated from the old rule of cut and try, from the 
old mechanical routine, the country as a whole has 
taken some long strides in advance. While some 
boards of education still look upon their superin- 
tendent as a chore boy, that idea has, on the whole, 
long since been abandoned. And the best educa- 
tional thought of the country to-day regards the 
superintendent primarily as an educator, having to 
do with the inner, rather than the outer, phases of 
the school's activities. And our most progressive 
centers are looking upon him as a specialist, an 
educational expert, and demanding in him an edu- 
cational and a professional equipment commensu- 
rate with the larger, more difficult, and most im- 
portant work. He must be intimately acquainted 
with the sciences most closely related to his own 
and capable of drawing upon all the others for con- 
tributory assistance. And then, in carrying out the 
thought of this larger view and so shaping mat- 
ters of detail as to profit by the superb equipment 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 197 

provided in the new superintendent, he has been 
freed from the routine work formerly done by him, 
thus giving the opportunity of studying the local 
problems and planning their solution. 

Now for my definite suggestion. It has taken me 
a long time to get to it, but I believe it is worth 
the time. I want you to look upon the superintend- 
ency of your schools as the largest, the most diffi- 
cult, and most important position within the be- 
stowal of the city. The mayor's job doesn't begin 
to compare with it. And then after you have so 
rated the position, I want you to free the man who 
holds it from all hack-work, from the details of 
business management, from anything and everything 
that now prevents him from making a careful, scien- 
tific, investigative study of fundamental educational 
problems that confront him right here in Grand 
Forks. 

And what are some of those problems, do you ask? 
Superintendent Kelly could doubtless name a score 
of them that he is waiting to get at but can not for 
want of time. Let me suggest a few that are con- 
fronting our superintendents all over the land. Nor 
can I do more than mention them. I name first 
this matter of retardation of which I have already 
spoken. Why is it that so many children fail of 
promotion and so have to repeat grades, thus add- 
ing to the expense of the schools? It no longer 
satisfies to say, "Because they do not study" — the 
question is, "Why do they not study?" Is it the 
fault of the child, the home, or the school? And, 
whosoever it is, how can the difficulty be removed? 
You would not in your business suffer a daily loss 
thru unnecessary friction — thru the unsatisfactory 



198 On the Firing Line in Education 

working of your machinery. You demand the larg- 
est and best output possible for the money ex- 
pended. Why not the same in the biggest business 
enterprise of the city — your schools? But to pre- 
vent the friction, you must know the cause. I want 
the superintendent to have time to investigate these 
matters. All this applies as well to those who drop 
out before completing the course as to those merely 
repeating a grade. An analogous question : Why do 
so few, relatively, of the graduates of the eighth 
grade enter the high school? And why do so few 
of those who enter complete the course? Again, is 
it because they can see no real connection between 
the work of the high school and the work of life 
— because it doesn't seem to fit them for anything? 
These things should be investigated and, when rea- 
sons are found, the remedy applied. We should know 
the facts. But all these matters take time, and the 
days are only so long and a man's strength always 
limited. Exhausted by hack-work, no man can do 
constructive thinking. And so we go on in our 
waste of money and energy and life. The waste of 
soil, the waste of tools, in our farming communities, 
doesn't compare with this waste in seriousness. Let 
us adopt the principles of scientific conservation. 

And now, in keeping with the topic given me to 
discuss, "Improvement in Our Public Schools," I 
have given three quite definite suggestions: In the 
first place, I have recommended the utilization of 
the Press as an agent of improvement. That is, I 
have asked that there be established in one or both 
of your daily papers an educational column in 
charge of some competent person thru which the 
public could become better informed on school mat- 



Improvements in Our Public Schools 199 

ters and thus able to co-operate more intelligently 
in the upbuilding of the schools. In the second place, 
I have urged that mesures be taken looking toward 
the adoption of regular and systematic medical in- 
spection of all school children. And lastly, I have 
urged you to look upon your superintendent of 
schools as an educational expert rather than a busi- 
ness man. And, regarding him as such, I have asked 
you to free him from the petty details of office work 
and all mechanical drudgery so that his training and 
his abilities could be used for educational better- 
ment. 



VIII 
LOCAL WINTER SPORTS 



A Tamper read before the Franklin Club of Grand 

Forks, North Dakota, December 1, 1910, and 

printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Herald," 

December h, 1910 



VIII 
LOCAL WINTER SPORTS 

IT is no longer necessary to offer an extended 
plea for a recognition of the value of physical 
training. The human race, in its upward climbs 
ing, long ago passed the stage where the body was 
looked upon as a hindrance to the soul in its aspi- 
rations. We have likewise gone beyond that higher 
stage in which the attitude toward the physical be- 
ing was merely negative, and have clearly reached 
an altitude upon which we recognize a well-defined 
relationship between the physical man and the men- 
tal and spiritual man. We know now that only as 
each is healthy and thus in a condition to do its 
own work well, is the other able to act normally. 
As the great English philosopher, Locke, said, "A 
sound mind in a sound body is a brief but full 
description of a happy state in this world." This 
is a well-recognized article of our educational creed, 
not only, but even the conservative religious 
workers have accepted the principle, and we find 
inscribed over the entrances to our Christian Asso- 
ciation buildings the word "body" as well as the 
word more commonly found in such connection, 
"spirit." 

But to go back just a moment: let us consider 
it from the standpoint of mere physical betterment. 
We know that a muscle unused means a muscle un- 

203 



204 On the Firing Line in Education 

developed, and that, on the contrary, intelligent, sys- 
tematic use, with a definite purpose in view, will ac- 
complish wonders in physical development. We 
know something as to what a physical trainer can 
do with a bunch of raw foot-ball material. We know 
how the gymnasium can metamorphose a loose- 
jointed, lop-sided, stoop-shouldered, shamble-gaited 
young fellow. We know what the brisk recruiting 
officer can do with the "awkward squad." In the 
one case as in the other, the physical training stands 
him upon his feet ; it takes the kinks out of his back ; 
it throws his head up; it unties the knots in his 
legs ; it puts fire into his eye. The good red blood 
courses thru his veins, and even shows itself in 
his cheeks. He walks with an elastic step. Every 
organ of his body is doing its duty. He no longer 
needs liver pills, digestive tablets or wizard oil. 

I said "mere physical betterment," didn't I? Well, 
you can not have "mere" physical betterment. In 
every case suggested above, there is something bet- 
ter than physical improvement. Without knowing 
why, or how, the young fellow, after the training 
suggested, in addition to being a more perfectly 
functioning animal, a better working flesh-and-blood 
machine, is several rounds higher up on the ladder 
of manhood. He looks you in the eye. He gives 
your hand a regular Stearns grip. He dares to 
say that his soul is his own. And why? Because 
the life-giving oxygen is getting down into the long- 
neglected corners of his lungs. Because his heart 
is forcing this purified blood thru his veins build- 
ing up his system and incidentally throwing off 
the waste and poisonous matter, so that, relieved 
of the dregs, the bodily organs can really function. 



Local Winter Sports 205 

And if that is true of the "gizzard" it is likewise 
true of the brain. He can feel more keenly, think 
more wisely. But all this can be done by physical 
exercise alone. Some of the best of these results 
can be obtained by the use of the mere punching 
bag; by running around the house, if you run often 
enough and fast enough; all alone with the dumb 
bells or Indian clubs, if you keep at it long enough, 
or even by walking out to the University on the rail- 
road tracks and saving your street car nickels. But 
taken thus, these exercises constitute a mere medi- 
cine. And people don't take medicine until they 
have to. And for some strange reason they won't 
take this kind even then unless some doctor pre- 
scribes it in consideration of the payment of a good 
sized fee. Why is it? Simply because we prize 
things in proportion to their cost? 

Now, we want these results and even better ones. 
And we don't want to pay the doctor's fees for this 
or any other kind of medicine in order to get them. 
What are we going to do about it? Isn't there 
some sugar coating that we can put on to these 
physical exercise pills to make them a little more 
palatable? Can't we in some way make ourselves 
believe that we are eating candy instead of taking 
quinine? For you know that we grown-ups have 
not lost all our powers of imagination. How often 
we play make believe, even yet! I'll tell you what 
we can do. Let's have this same physical exercise 
idea but introduce into it the element of sport which 
Webster defines as "that which diverts and makes 
mirth." Let's do these stunts "for the fun of it" 
instead of as a medicine. We'll get the results just 
the same, and thus get double pay for our pains. 



206 On the Firing Lime in Education 

I fancy that the skiing and the skating, the snow- 
shoeing and the curling of which we are to hear, all 
have that element tucked away somewhere in their 
anatomy. 

But you may ask me what more there is than 
the results already mentioned to be gotten from 
these physical exercises, if we succeed in covering 
up the quinine with Mr. Webster's molasses. I've 
used Indian clubs and dumb bells by the hour; I've 
walked to the University in season and out of sea- 
son; I've even run around the house — and as a re- 
sult have experienced the exhilaration that comes 
from such vigorous discipline. I've been better for 
it, physically, and therefore, of course, mentally. 
More oxygen, better blood, firmer bodily tissue in- 
cluding better nourished brain cells, have done their 
beneficent work. But yet, as 1 I look back and see 
myself going thru these various maneuvers, I am 
fully confident of the fact that all this time I was 
also doing something else — that my poor brain cells, 
which really needed recuperation more than any 
other part of my body, that these brain cells were 
still at work, that I was all the time carrying on 
a more or less strenuous train of thought as ex- 
haustive as tho I were seated in my study chair, or 
standing before my class in the recitation room. 
More than one lecture, or address, have I worked 
out while walking to and from the University. 

Now, one of the most important things for us to 
do is occasionally to stop thinking, or at least to 
stop thinking along our accustomed lines. We 
should give those few brain cells that are being made 
to work over-time a chance to rest once in a while. 
We are living too fast. Our lives are too intense. 



Local Winter Sports 207 

We are running our machines under high pressure, 
and some of them are already showing the results 
altho they are almost new. Unless there is a change, 
new ones will have to take their places ere long. 
The rate of speed of the life of the modern American 
business and professional man, the rate of speed of 
the life of the modern American society woman, is 
something terrific. We are wearing ourselves out 
before our time. Modern life is so complex, so ex- 
acting, so wearing, that we are losing all the joy 
of living. We are at our own firesides so seldom 
and for such short periods that we scarcely know 
our own little ones. Longfellow's "Children's Hour" 
that came "as a pause in the day's occupation," is 
almost wholly unknown in most American homes. 
There is no "pause" in the day's occupation. The 
occupation goes right on till after these "children" 
are soundly asleep in their beds and begins again 
before they are awake in the morning. And all 
this is true even of us, right here in this select cir- 
cle, the "favored ones," many would call us. 

But I am not giving a diatribe on American life, 
so will not pursue the matter farther. All that I 
am trying to do is simply this: to call attention to 
the fact that we are living fast — faster than our 
physical and mental make-up can long stand; that 
we have already reached the danger point. And 
what are we going to do about it? Well, we shall 
have to do many things before the problems are all 
solved, the difficulties all met. As a slight relief, and 
to answer a question raised a little earlier in the 
paper, I am suggesting the sports — those activities 
that both rejuvenate the physical man and also 
"divert and make mirth." Into these we can not 



208 On the Firing Line in Education 

carry our teaching and our preaching and our mak- 
ing of social calls. The goods of the merchant, the 
notes of the banker, the briefs of the lawyer, the 
annoyances of the teacher, and the cares of the 
housewife, alike, would all have to be left behind. 
The mind could rest while the body and the spirit 
are being recreated. An hour a day, in the open 
air, with fears and anxieties and schemes all cast 
aside, in companionship with kindred spirits simi- 
larly divested of that which troubles and makes 
afraid, all engaged in recreative sports, would do 
more to make us physically well, morally strong, 
and civilly decent than all the pills of the doctors, 
all the texts of the preachers, and all the keys of 
the jailers ! 

In keeping with the world-wide movement in this 
direction our own people, in their civic capacity, 
have already acted and have thus become the pos- 
sessor of splendid park facilities which offer ample 
opportunities, when fully developed, for a sane out- 
of-door life of a population many times as large as 
ours at the present time. And as we all know, the 
Park Board has entered intelligently and system- 
atically upon this matter of development and im- 
provement. Much has already been done. Very much 
more is fully outlined in the minds of the Park 
Board. I think it is their purpose — and I fully be- 
lieve that they will carry it out — to proceed in this 
matter of development just as rapidly as the people 
show, by their use of the facilities progressively of- 
fered, an appreciation. 

Nearly all the work done thus far, such as clear- 
ing away the rubbish, making the shady retreats 
usable, fitting up picnic grounds, caring for the 



Local Winter Sports 

tennis courts, golf links, and other game reserves, 
as well as erecting pavilions and other conveniences, 
has looked toward putting the grounds into con- 
dition for summer use. And the response on the part 
of the people has been gratifying. As rapidly as 
the parks have been put into shape, they have been 
generously used by an appreciative people. It has 
done my heart good, many times, especially on Sun- 
days in the hot summer months, to see the numbers 
of people, and the people, who were really using the 
parks. They have been the people, in a large mes- 
ure, who can not easily get elsewhere the best things 
that the parks give. 

Thus far, as said, the plans for development have 
looked mainly toward summer use. But I am espe- 
cially glad to note a recent improvement that shows 
that the Park Board has the winter use of the parks 
also definitely in mind. I refer to the new skat- 
ing rink in Riverside Park. It is a most commenda- 
ble institution. I very much hope that it will be 
extensively used, not only by the people living in 
that part of the city, but by those of all sections. 
It belongs to all of us. Here is an opportunity for 
a most delightful winter sport freely offered. If 
appreciated, as shown by its use, I have no doubt 
that it will be duplicated next winter, and on a 
larger scale, in Lincoln Park. And if we show that 
we appreciate this, other features will be added. 

Perhaps I should stop here, but I can not lose 
the opportunity of saying just a word to connect 
this topic with the great playground movement, 
and therefore in behalf of providing facilities for 
winter and summer sports alike, for our boys and 
girls — our young people. 



210 On the Firing Line in Education 

Do you realize fully that the boys and girls of 
to-day — yours and mine, yes, and just as truly those 
less favored — those into whose lives there comes but 
little cheer, into whose stomachs there goes but lit- 
tle nourishing food, and into whose lungs, but little 
oxygen — do you realize, I ask, that these boys and 
girls are to be the men and women of to-morrow, 
with all the responsibilities of the world resting 
upon their shoulders? Do we want them to enter 
upon the duties of life stoop-shouldered, flat-chested, 
spectacle-eyed? Do we want them to be anaemic, pes- 
simistic, nervous wrecks? Do we want them to be 
mental weaklings and moral cowards? Do we want 
them even to approximate these conditions? No? 
Then, with all our provisions for their wants and 
their needs, let us be sure to develop those things 
which minister so largely to the development of the 
opposite characteristics. Prevention is not only 
cheaper than cure, it is also better. Let us see that 
our parks are developed with provisions for our boys 
and girls as well as for the adults. Let us see that 
playgrounds are scattered over our city and pro- 
vision made for both winter and summer sports. 

In addition to the Riverside Park skating rink, 
I wish the City Council or the Board of Education 
would establish one on the grounds of the Winship 
school, another at the Central building, and still 
a third on the Belmont grounds. This could be done 
at nominal cost. What a splendid opportunity it 
would give to all the children of the city to engage 
in this most healthful and invigorating sport! It 
would give them their needed entertainment and re- 
laxation in the pure, invigorating, out-of-door air. 
It would surround them with an emotional atmos- 



Local Winter Sports 211 

phere that is at once normal, natural, and spiritually 
health-giving. Instead of these conditions, what do 
we find? Many of our young boys and girls and 
very many of those a little older — those just en- 
tering upon manhood and womanhood, when both 
emotional and physical atmosphere count for so 
much in the forming of habits and the choosing of 
ideals — many of these future men and women are 
finding their entertainment and their relaxation ( and 
mind you, at the close of a day in school or in the 
evening after a day spent in the poorly ventilated 
office or store) in the moving-picture show or at the 
vaudeville. And in these places the air is apt to 
be both hot and impure, and all the physical condi- 
tions enervating. The emotional atmosphere, too, 
is sure to be abnormal, unnatural, and spiritually 
deadening. We find here, and in too large quantity 
to be a negligible factor, the atmosphere, the con- 
ditions, the associations, that help greatly to breed 
incorrigibles, truants, and laggards in our schools; 
that develop juvenile delinquents, hasty marriages, 
and early divorces ; that send into the world paupers, 
grafters, and criminals. Not all the conditions are 
such in all such places, it is true, but as affecting 
young life these are usually the dominating ones. 

I am not condemning the theater. It has its legiti- 
mate place, and a large place it is, in normal, 
healthy, American life. I am merely declaiming 
against these lower forms as usually conducted for 
commercial gain — these perversions of the true the- 
ater idea — these institutions that deal so largely in 
the sensational elements and appeal so strongly to 
the passions. I am told that the cheap theater is 
the poor man's club. I very much doubt if that 



SIS On the Firing Line in Education 

is its chief function or, rather, that its chief result 
is a wholesome quickening of the better nature of 
this poor man — that its chief accomplishment is to 
send him back to his home kinder, truer, and 
stronger, thru either the relaxation or the instruc- 
tion, to grapple with the difficulties of life. I greatly 
fear that, as usually conducted, its influence upon 
the adult is at best but the temporary slaking of 
an unhealthy and never-satisfied thirst, and that 
upon the child and the adolescent it is a distinct 
blunting of all the finer sensibilities and elements 
of character. But even these lower forms are not 
all bad. There is enough of good in them to war- 
rant an attempt at improvement rather than elimi- 
nation. They can be improved, made clean, and 
wholesome, and thus become a positive factor in 
the development of right character. I doubt if it 
will be done, however, until some other motive than 
personal gain shall be responsible for their manage- 
ment. Still, as they are, they might be very greatly 
bettered if in some way those most deeply interested 
in the outcome could have a choice in the selection 
of the material to be used. 

One of the best ways to counteract the harmful 
influence of the poorly conducted moving picture 
show and the vaudeville is to develop something 
better to take their places. Let it be something 
that contains the life-giving principles, something 
that will appeal with equal force to the impression- 
able youth, and yet be clean and wholesome and 
natural. Shall we not look upon the public play- 
ground for the children, and the park system, for 
all, as a promising hope? And, properly developed, 
would they not soon come to act on the young, both 



Local Winter Sports 213 

physically and psychically, as a prevention, thus 
making a later cure unnecessary? And upon adults, 
might we not reasonably expect their use to tend 
toward making less attractive, and so to the eventual 
abandonment of, many of these practises and forms 
of entertainment and recreation that are now so sap- 
ping of both physical and psychical life? 



IX 

THE FUNCTION OF TEACHERS COLLEGE 



An Address delivered before the North Dakota State 

Teachers Association on December 27, 1906. 

It later appeared in the January and Feb- 

ruary, 1910, issues of "Education" 



IX 
THE FUNCTION OF TEACHERS COLLEGE 

AMONG the various educational institutions of 
the United States to-day, the one which, as it 
seems to me, is attracting the most intelligent atten- 
tion on the part of our educational thinkers, and 
the one upon the right solution of whose problems 
depends, in a high degree, the success of our entire 
educational system, is the institution for the educa- 
tion of teachers. For we all have come, finally, to 
accept as true the statement of the old German 
writer, "School reform means schoolmaster reform," 
also that other, used so effectively in the days of our 
own early educational revival, "As is the teacher 
so is the school." And we are ready to-day to admit 
that those statements are true whether applied to 
the ungraded rural school with its noticeable lack 
of needed equipment, to the perfectly graded school 
of the city with every facility that human ingenuity 
can devise and money procure, or to the college and 
university where scholarship and culture are sup- 
posed to make their abode and contribute of their 
fullness. For I care not, and you care not, what 
be the physical and material equipment of the school ; 
I care not, nor do you, what be the scholastic at- 
tainments of the one called teacher ; if he isn't able to 
teach, that is, to cause to learn, we all know that 
the school, in just the mesure of his inability, is a 

217 



218 On the Firing Line in Education 

failure. One thing further we all know, and that is 
this: one plank in our great educational platform 
is belief in the necessity of an institution set apart 
for the preparation of teachers. We are irrevocably 
committed to the idea. It is a part of our educa- 
tional creed. Fortunately, in our educational evo- 
lution we have left far behind us the stage when the 
wisdom of that institution was seriously questioned. 
Our pedagogical forefathers, valiant explorers, dis- 
coverers, heroes, educational statesmen — Carter, 
Mann, Page, Sheldon and others — have left us this 
priceless heritage. It remains for us to-day merely 
to analyze the institution, agree upon the respective 
functions of its various types, and then apply our- 
selves with intelligent vigor each to the solution of 
his own problems. 

As we look around us, we clearly distinguish three 
distinct types of the institution under discussion. 
The oldest, best known, and most numerous is called 
the state normal school. It dates from the time 
of Horace Mann and Edmund Dwight, the former 
of whom recognized the need and knew how to in- 
augurate the movement, the latter, having unbounded 
faith in Mr. Mann, provided the funds. Nearly 
every state in the union has now one or more intel- 
ligently at work. All that have not, have practi- 
cally the same thing under another name — normal 
departments in connection with the state univer- 
sities. 

The next type, in order of time and numbers, as 
well, is found in connection with the higher educa- 
tional institutions of the country. It has various 
names, as "Department of Education," "School of 
Education," "Division of Education," "Pedagogical 



The Function of Teachers College 219 

Department," "School of Pedagogy" and "Teachers 
College." Probably the name most common in the 
past has been "Department of Education," or 
"Pedagogical Department," tho in the developed 
form it is changing to "School of Education" or 
"Teachers College." Of these, there are at work, 
according to the 1909 report of the Commissioner 
of Education, 171. That is, there are 171 colleges 
and universities maintaining at least a department, 
or chair, of education, and giving professional in- 
struction of college grade. 

The third type, latest in appearance and as yet 
fewest in number, but with fair promise of rapid 
increase and great usefulness, is the county school, 
called "County Normal Training Class" in Michi- 
gan and "County Training School" in Wisconsin, 
in which two states the movement is at its best. In- 
deed, I do not know of any other state in which 
the work has been thus definitely organized. Of 
these, Michigan had, a year ago, forty-one, and Wis- 
consin, twenty. Possibly in this connection one 
ought to mention the good work being done in high 
schools in several states, but seen at its best in Ne- 
braska and New York. Yet this work is but an 
adjunct to the high school, and does not so clearly 
approach a separate institution. 

Of these three types it is the second which is the 
subject of the present discussion — whose function I 
seek. It is really immaterial whether we use, in 
the discussion, the appellation of Minnesota and 
say "College of Education," or that of Harvard 
and call it "Division of Education," or that of 
Columbia, Missouri, and North Dakota, and say 
"Teachers College." For they are all one and the 



On the Firing Line in Education 

same institution with but slightly different systems 
of organization. I use the latter term because more 
familiar and more likely, I think, as time passes, to 
prevail. 

But these three types are so closely connected that 
the function of one cannot be clearly seen alone. 
Therefore I propose very briefly to examine the es- 
tablishment of each so as to learn why it was called 
into existence — what function it was originally ex- 
pected to perform. I shall then briefly examine 
present conditions, trying to discover if any changes 
have taken place in the general educational situation 
of sufficient moment to make necessary a rearrange- 
ment or readjustment. Finally, I shall draw my 
conclusions as to present functions, and with a more 
careful analysis of certain factors state the reasons 
for those conclusions as briefly as possible. 

First, as to state normal schools : it is, of course, 
entirely unnecessary to go into details as to organi- 
zation or early work of this institution in our coun- 
try. I am stating what is known to all when I say 
that Horace Mann in Massachusetts, Henry Bar- 
nard in Connecticut, David Page in New York, and 
William Phelps in New Jersey had one and only one 
thought in view in working for the establishment 
of normal schools and for the development of their 
work. They, one and all, were seeking some means 
for providing better teachers for the common 
schools. No one, so far as I am able to discover, 
at this time even suggested that any other teachers 
needed a special preparation for their work. To 
be sure, the American high school was hardly under 
way when the normal school movement was inaugu- 
rated, in 1839, there being then but half a dozen in 



The Function of Teachers College 221 

the entire country. Ten years later there were but 
eighteen. There was, however, in those days a large 
number of academies giving secondary instruction. 
But there was no thought of looking to the normal 
schools for academy teachers, they came from the 
colleges. Indeed, generally speaking, the academies 
and high schools as then being developed, were offer- 
ing a higher grade of academic work than the nor- 
mal schools, and they were rather assisting the latter 
in the production of teachers. This was especially 
true in New York, a movement having there been 
inaugurated by which, thru financial aid from the 
State, many of the academies were offering normal 
school instruction and sending out into the rural 
schools and city grades a very creditable product. 
And the character of the movement in the East has 
continued to be the character of the movement as 
it has swept Westward. I think there has not been 
established in the United States a single state normal 
school whose function has not been understood to 
be the preparation of teachers for the common 
schools. And by "common schools" I mean the first 
eight grades of the public school, including both 
rural and urban communities, for it has been only 
in recent years that we have carefully discriminated 
between the two. 

Next, let us look at the teachers college. Bear 
in mind that I use the term as referring to the in- 
stitution, or department, under whatever name it 
may be known, that is doing professional work in 
the preparation of teachers in connection with col- 
leges and universities. In taking up the topic, 
attention needs first to be called to two facts : the 
rapid development of our high school system and 



On the Firing Li/ne in Education 

the high degree of success already attained by our 
normal schools. 

After the close of the Civil War our high schools 
began to multiply — rapidly from 1870 to 1880, by 
leaps and bounds from that time to the present. In 
1870 there were 170; 1880, 800; 1890, 2,526; 1900, 
6,005; and in 1908, 8,960. (Annual reports of the 
Commissioner of Education.) But no sooner had 
the high school movement obtained good headway 
than the serious problem arose as to the supply of 
teachers. And so well, on the whole, had the normal 
school done its work that it had more than justi- 
fied its existence. Thru its work the character of 
the teaching in the elementary schools had been 
greatly improved. Teachers, with normal school 
equipment, were everywhere recognized as superior 
to those otherwise trained or not trained at all. 
Very naturally, then, when the problem of high 
school teachers arose, professional preparation was 
demanded. But where could it be obtained and 
how? 

The state normal schools, true to their function 
of preparing teachers, tried to satisfy the addi- 
tional demands placed upon them. They added to 
their equipment, modified and extended their courses, 
and in every way did all they could. Indeed, they 
did all that was done in a professional way for nearly 
a generation. But the high schools were increasing, 
both in numbers and in academic requirements of 
students and teachers. City school systems were be- 
ing developed and extended in a most unprecedented 
manner, calling for skilled superintendents, super- 
visors, grade principals, special teachers, etc., until, 
finally, thoughtful men began to see that the 



The Function of Teachers College %23 

impossible was being asked of the state nor- 
mal schools. For two reasons, it was seen, they 
could not do the double work: in the first place, 
they had more than they could do in their original 
sphere of providing teachers for the elementary 
schools, and secondly, their academic possibilities, 
even increased as they had been in attempting the 
work, were clearly seen to be wholly inadequate. 
It was discovered, also, that, in spite of the efforts 
being put forth by the normal schools, the higher 
teaching positions — superintendences, high school 
principalships, etc. — were going to men of collegiate 
attainment, even at the sacrifice of professional 
training which was then being recognized as very 
desirable. 

What was to be done? To make a long story 
short, the universities and colleges, with their more 
extended courses, better equipment, and stronger 
faculties, took the matter up and added educational 
departments in which could be given, with but slight 
additional outlay, both the academic and profes- 
sional equipment thought to be needed by the high 
school teacher. 

This work was first clearly suggested and outlined 
at the annual meeting of the Michigan State Teach- 
ers' Association in 1870. Dr. W. H. Payne, then 
city superintendent of schools at Adrian, Michigan, 
read a notable address upon the subject, "The Re- 
lation Between the University and Our High 
Schools." Eight years later, the Regents of Michi- 
gan University established a chair of "Theory and 
Art of Teaching," and to it called the man who had, 
by the address just mentioned, offered a practical as 
well as a logical solution of the difficult problem. 



224 On the Firing Line in Education 

The example thus set by Michigan University was 
soon followed by others — Cornell, Ohio, Illinois, Har- 
vard, Chicago and others, until now this new depart- 
ment is found in nearly every prominent college 
and university in the land. These are our teachers 
colleges or, rather, the sources from which they are 
springing. For, to be sure, not every pedagogical 
department found in a higher institution of learn- 
ing, tho doing in a general way the same grade of 
work, should be called a teachers college. Tho hav- 
ing its roots in these, the teachers college proper 
differs from the most of them in several ways. The 
pedagogical department of a college, and too, a 
thoroly reputable college, may be, and usually is, 
merely one of the many departments of the insti- 
tution, represented on its faculty by a single pro- 
fessor and offering but a limited range of profes- 
sional work — a few courses in the history of 
education, principles of education, and "pedagogy," 
usually. A teachers college, on the other hand, has 
an organization and, sometimes, a financial status 
of its own. Its relationship to the institution as 
a whole is getting to be the same as that of the 
other professional schools. The movement is toward 
a separate faculty, headed by a dean, and repre- 
senting all the different phases of both academic 
and professional work. While many of the members 
of the faculty do, and may continue to, give courses 
in the other colleges, they have a distinct, organic 
connection with the teachers college. The teachers 
college is also getting to have, as a vital part of its 
equipment, a model high school bearing to it the 
same relationship that the model, or practise, school 
bears to our normal schools. While this fulness of 



The Fwnction of Teachers College 225 

organization and equipment has not yet been reached 
by a large number, it has by several, among which 
are Columbia, Missouri, Chicago, and, approxi- 
mately, North Dakota, with many others moving 
rapidly in the same direction. 

Just a few words, now, as to the third type men- 
tioned, the county normal school: As already sug- 
gested, the line of demarcation was not early drawn 
between the urban and the rural school. But cities 
grew; city school systems were developed; the nor- 
mal schools, in spite of rapid increase, were not able 
to keep up with the rapidly increasing demands. 
And, since the field for normal school graduates has 
ever been an open one, they have located where the 
remuneration has been the most generous. Now, cities 
and villages are, generally speaking, the centers of 
intelligence as well as of population and wealth. The 
people of these communities have appreciated the 
superiority of professionally prepared teachers, and 
they have been able to pay the added price. The 
result has been that they have appropriated prac- 
tically the entire output of the normal schools. 
None have been left for the rural schools. 

And again, with these economic changes there came 
to be more and more clearly seen, as the years went 
by, a difference, internal and somewhat vital, between 
the schools of the rural and the urban communities, 
making in some ways a different sort of prepara- 
tion desirable. Now, the state normal school, grow- 
ing with the movement, and ever keenly alive to its 
opportunities for usefulness, noting clearly the lo- 
cation of its product, very wisely began to modify 
its work so as to make it better suited to the needs 
of its main customers — the well-graded schools of 



On the Firing Line in Education 

the city and village. And so it has resulted that, 
even if the normal schools could supply the demands 
for both country and city teachers, so far as num- 
bers are concerned, the preparation given is not the 
most ideal for the former. And just as when pro- 
fessionally trained secondary teachers were needed 
a new institution was created for their prepara- 
tion, in very recent years an institution has appeared 
to satisfy this new need, one whose function is as 
clearly announced, and one which seems to fit into 
the situation as well, and we have the county normal 
school of Michigan and Wisconsin, as mentioned 
above. 

Whether we shall see a rapid extension of this new 
movement, making the county normal school as fixt 
an institution as the state normal school has become, 
and as the teachers college bids fair to become, or 
whether, thru consolidation, the distinctive type of 
our rural school shall disappear and our state nor- 
mal schools be increased in number to meet the larger 
demands, only the future can tell. This latter, 
however, will not be in our generation, and I con- 
fidently look for the former. I believe the general 
adoption and adaptation of the county normal 
school idea would be one of the most economical and 
speedy means of solving some of our most serious 
rural school problems. And I also believe that it 
should be our next step, if we can take but one step 
at a time, toward professional education of teachers. 

If I have analyzed aright the present situation, 
and have been fair in my all too brief account of 
the rise and development of these institutions, we 
see that we have in our midst to-day, as a result 
of the development of our educational system, and 



The Function of Teachers College %Ti 

to keep pace with it, the development of the idea 
so long ago adopted — the value of the professional 
preparation of the teacher — three quite distinct 
types of an institution for such purpose. Enumerat- 
ing now in order of grade of work rather than of 
historical development, we have (1) the county nor- 
mal school, whose function is solely the preparation 
of teachers for the rural schools — sixty-one of them 
found only in Michigan and Wisconsin, sending into 
the rural schools of those states about 800 fairly 
well equipt teachers each year; (2) the old state 
normal school of historic fame, whose function is 
the preparation of teachers for the elementary 
grades of our city and village schools — 195 there 
were two years ago — and they sent out into the 
schools approximately 10,000 teachers, mostly grad- 
uates ; (3) the teachers college, found always in 
connection with a college of high rank or of a full- 
fledged university, offering work, both academic and 
professional, of full university grade and covering 
the full university period of four years. The num- 
ber cannot be stated definitely, because the process 
that is transforming the old pedagogical depart- 
ments into teachers colleges is at such varying stages 
of development. Its function is best stated in the 
words of the institution in which it was founded 
(Calendar of the University of Michigan for 1904- 
1905, p. 126) :— 

"1. To fit university students for the higher po- 
sitions in the public school service. 

"2. To promote the study of educational science. 

"3. To teach the history of education and of edu- 
cational systems and doctrines. 



On the Firing Line in Education 

"4. To secure to teaching the rights, prerogatives 
and advantages of a profession. 

"5. To give a more perfect unity to our state 
educational system, by bringing the secondary 
schools into closer relations with the university." 

"Higher position in the public school service" 
meant, in the main, in the early days, city superin- 
tendencies and high school principalships. To these, 
others have been added, one by one, owing very 
largely to the great success of the movement and 
the growing appreciation of the value of profes- 
sional preparation for occupants of such positions, 
until now they include city superintendencies, high 
school and grade principalships, subject supervisor- 
ships, high school, normal school, and college in- 
struct orships. Already the leading teachers col- 
leges, the ones at Columbia, Missouri, and Chicago 
universities, are being definitely looked to for these 
later added and more responsible workmen. 

Thus far I have but stated historical facts known 
to all who are reasonably well informed touching 
the history of education and current educational 
practise in our country. I have done this all too 
briefly, I am well aware. But the reason that I could 
do it briefly is the fact that the readers of this 
journal are well informed upon the historical phases 
of the subject. All that I needed to do was to cull 
out and bring to the fore the pertinent facts. But 
the question now arises, is this differentiation logi- 
cal? Are there any reasons, psychological, eco- 
nomic, or otherwise, for such differentiation ? If 
there are, it is going to continue, and these types 
of the institution which now seem to have been given 
each such a definite and separate work to do are 



The Function of Teachers College 229 

going to be relatively permanent. If not, we shall 
continue to cut and try, undoing to-morrow what 
was done to-day, and chaos will result. 

This institution, with its various types, is not one 
that has evolved from a careful theoretical study of 
our present or prospective educational needs, but 
one that has grown up, little by little, step by step, 
to meet and satisfy from time to time the present 
and pressing needs of the larger system of which it 
forms a part, and for the service of which it was 
called into existence. But is it not true that often- 
times the logic of events — the movements of history 
— reveal to us our fundamental principles, outline 
for us our policy of action, and even write out for 
us our program of procedure as correctly and even 
more irrevocably than philosophical formulation 
could do? Is not that especially likely to occur un- 
der such a form of government as ours? I think it 
has occurred in the present case. 

It is interesting to note in this connection the fact 
that the logic of events has led us, in our efforts 
to solve the difficult problem of the education of our 
teachers, to practically the same solution as that 
already reached by France and Germany, which 
countries proceeded more nearly along the pathway 
of theoretical philosophical formulation. 

I believe that at least two of these institutions, 
the state normal school and the teachers college, 
have come to stay, and with practically the func- 
tions outlined above. Of the county normal school, 
as said before, I do not feel quite so sure. I am 
led to the belief in the relative permanency of these 
types of professional school, not only by a knowl- 
edge of the history of their development, but also 



230 On the Firing Line in Education 

by the conviction, formed by a somewhat careful 
study of the entire problem, that there are funda- 
mental reasons, psychological as well as economical, 
for the differentiation. In other words, my own 
somewhat careful study of the entire situation brings 
me to the same position that the logic of events has 
brought us all. 

As to the county normal school: it is so apparent 
as scarcely to need mention that the teacher of the 
rural school needs a preparation differing in many 
ways from that needed by the teacher of the city 
grades. The environment, physical, psychical, and 
social, is so different that a teacher equipt to do 
thoroly good work in either one place might sig- 
nally fail in the other. And the present economic 
situation speaks with nearly the same insistence. 
Even if our state normal schools were sending out 
teachers ideally equipt for service in the rural com- 
munities, the remuneration there offered is, and 
for an indefinite time will remain, so low as practi- 
cally to keep them out of the schools. Either we 
must have special institutions for the preparation 
of the teachers of the rural schools, or else those 
schools must, in the main, continue to do without 
professionally prepared teachers. 

Turning now to the other type, it is equally clear 
to me that the very character of the work in the 
elementary and secondary schools should be differ- 
ent one from the other, different as to discipline, 
ends in view, subjects of study, and methods of 
handling the same. In the elementary school the 
pupil is a child, with the mind, the tastes, the am- 
bitions of a child, and he should be allowed to re- 
main a child. The ends in view are right habits, 



The Function of Teachers College 231 

right ideals, and knowledge facts. In the secondary 
school the student is an adolescent, with the mind 
of an adolescent, having peculiar and erratic tastes, 
changing ambitions, and conflicting emotions. He 
is neither child nor adult, but passing thru the 
most dangerous and critical period of his entire life. 
The ends in view are no longer merely habits, ideals, 
and knowledge facts, but, added to these, and now 
more important for emphasis because presumably 
right principles have already been established, 
breadth and fixity of character, self-acquaintance, 
scholarship, and culture. Tell me that the atmos- 
phere, psychical and spiritual, and the training, 
academic and professional, that will produce the 
ideal teacher of the child will also produce the ideal 
teacher of the adolescent? Nay, verily! You might 
as well tell the florist that the American Beauty 
rose and the Snow Flower of the Northern forest 
will both reach perfection if grown side by side. 
Then surely we need different kinds of institutions. 
I cannot better conclude this thought than by using 
the words of Dr. Wm. T. Harris found in the intro- 
ductory paragraph of an article on "The Future of 
the Normal School." (Ed. Rev., January, 1899, 
p. 1.) Dr. Harris says: "I have tried to set down 
in this paper the grounds for commending the nor- 
mal school as it exists for its chosen work of pre- 
paring teachers for the elementary schools, and at 
the same time urging the need of training schools 
with different methods of preparation for the kinder- 
garten, below, and for the secondary school, the 
college and the post-graduate school, above the ele- 
mentary school." 

The reason just given, the psychological one, is 



232 On the Firing Line in Education 

alone sufficient for believing that the differentiation 
is logical. But let me add another, almost equally 
effective — an academic reason, directly academic and 
at the same time indirectly economic. This is found 
in the following words, taken from Dr. Payne's "Con- 
tributions to the Science of Education." (Am. 
Book Co., 1886, p. 338.) "If there is any well- 
established principle of school economy it is this: 
The scholarship of the teacher should be consid- 
erably broader than the scholarship of his most ad- 
vanced pupil." Nobody now questions the statement. 
Upon the basis of that principle there is little 
criticism to be offered of the academic equipment 
of our normal school graduates as teachers in the 
grades. No normal school now completes its work 
with less than one full year beyond the completion 
of a four-year high school course, and two years 
beyond is rapidly getting to be the standard. So 
that normal school graduation gives the prospective 
teacher of the grades at least four years of academic, 
and from one to two years of professional and 
academic work beyond the point to be reached by 
"his most advanced pupil." To be sure, more would 
be better — a longer experience and a closer acquaint- 
ance with the great character forming subjects, 
such as literature, history, philosophy, etc. This 
would give breadth of view, clearness of perception, 
and a right perspective — elements of incomparable 
value in the equipment of the teacher. But yet, in 
view of our economic conditions and of a general 
lack of understanding and therefore of appreciation 
in the lay mind of the most vital and fundamental 
work of the teacher, we cannot yet hope for teach- 
ers ideally equipt. And our present standards, if 



The Fwnction of Teachers College 233 

insisted upon and the work thus far be thoro and 
clear and faithful, will give us increasingly better 
results and eventually lead to conditions more nearly 
ideal. 

But this judgment as to criticism must be very dif- 
ferent when we look upon these graduates as pos- 
sible teachers in the high school. The scholarship 
of such a teacher there would be but little, if any, 
"broader than the scholarship of his most advanced 
pupil." While there is to-day no uniform legisla- 
tion touching the requirements as to qualifications 
of high school teachers in the United States, each 
state, and even each school, being largely a law unto 
itself, there is getting to be a very decided uni- 
formity the country over as to practise, and in 
many ways this is much more significant than for- 
mal legislation would be. For without compulsion, 
the whole people, each section and each state, inde- 
pendent of all others, seemingly by the very neces- 
sity of the case, have fixt upon the same minimum 
standard of qualification for high school teachers. 
And that minimum is the completion of a full four- 
year collegiate course of instruction, including— 
indeed, in many cases, plus — a certain emphasis to 
be placed upon the subjects to be handled, and a 
certain amount of time devoted to strictly profes- 
sional subjects. To be sure, in some states legis- 
lation has spoken, as in Minnesota, requiring com- 
pletion of collegiate work, and practically so in 
North Dakota, requiring completion of such work 
for superintendences and high school principalships, 
and strongly recommending the same for all teach- 
ing positions in the high school. In California a 
step farther has been taken in requiring, in addition 



£34 On the Firing Line in Education 

to that, a full year of graduate study. The tend- 
ency, in several states, seems to be in the direction 
of the position taken by California. And with 
that tendency I am in sympathy. 

This movement upward, however, I do not want to 
see go any farther. I deprecate the tendency, seen 
in some quarters, of setting up as the symbol of the 
standard of qualification for the high school teacher, 
the doctor's degree. I do not want the boys and 
girls of our high schools taught, or rather directed 
in their upward development, by mere specialists — 
doctors of philosophy, who know everything about 
nothing, and nothing about everything. Nor do I 
want them directed by men and women who are 
obliged to "cipher on page twenty while the class 
is working on page nineteen." But I do want them 
directed by men and women who are thoroly ac- 
quainted with the subjects which they teach, and 
who know how to handle the same; but especially 
by men and women of broad, liberal culture, men and 
women whose lives have been enriched by the best 
there is in literature, history, art, science, and phi- 
losophy, and who know life, and are in warm sym- 
pathy with young life. Teachers thus equipt are 
able, from their high vantage point, to reach out 
here and there and take as educative material that 
which will contribute to the beautiful and strong 
development of each case at hand. And such an 
equipment, on its academic side, comes not short of 
the master's degree, or its equivalent. 

My authority for the statement made above as to 
the growing uniformity of practise in requiring as 
minimum qualification for high school teachers a 
full collegiate course, and as to the tendency in 



The Function of Teachers College £35 

several states toward requiring, in addition, a full 
year of graduate study, is found in an extended cor- 
respondence with normal school principals and city 
and state superintendents representing the entire 
country. 

These facts as to present-day requirements seem 
to me to fix somewhat definitely the matters under 
discussion. Our normal schools, with possibly two 
or three exceptions, are not equipt to give the ex- 
tended qualification now demanded for the high 
school teacher. Barring the two or three, the best 
of them do not pretend to carry the student more 
than two years beyond high school graduation. And 
whether it be one or two years, the work is, as it 
ought to be, mainly professional — not academic. 
Indeed, the presidents of many of our strongest nor- 
mal schools insist that they do not do any strictly 
academic work. And if the lack is so great touch- 
ing high school teachers, how much greater touching 
positions still higher. 

To be sure, the work of the normal schools might 
be sufficiently extended to enable them to do this 
additional and advanced work. New buildings might 
be erected, laboratory facilities increased, libraries 
enlarged, additional and stronger teachers provided, 
etc. But is it necessary? Is it wise? Is it likely 
to happen with our legislators holding the purse 
strings so tightly tied? To all such questions the 
answer must inevitably be negative. It is not neces- 
sary because not really needed for the preparation 
of elementary teachers, while for the preparation of 
secondary teachers other agencies are at hand. And 
if not needed the unwisdom of such an extension can 
scarcely be questioned. Certainly not, if, as urged 



On the Firing Line in Education 

above, different kinds of institutions are needed for 
the preparation of the two grades of teachers. 
Then, if both not needed and unwise, it is not likely 
to happen in any case where legislators are intel- 
ligently informed as to the situation. 

To indicate the feeling among many of our lead- 
ing educators touching this point, it might be in- 
teresting, in closing, to give a brief summary of 
the correspondence mentioned above. This inquiry, 
was directed to all our state superintendents, to 
forty of the leading normal school principals rep- 
resenting all sections of the country, and to fifty- 
two leading and representative city superintendents. 
The following questions were asked: — 

(1) Are your normal schools at the present time 
equipt to give adequate preparation to prospective 
high school teachers? 

(2) If you think they are not, would it be wise 
to add to their present equipment such facilities as 
would enable them to give such preparation, or can 
that work be better done in some other way? 

Replies from State Superintendents 

To question (1). Thirty-eight replies were re- 
ceived, of which twenty-nine were negative and nine 
affirmative. Of the nine, however, only one came 
from a state in which normal school facilities are 
at all superior to what may be termed a fair average, 
and in that state these facilities are found in only 
one of the five normal schools, whereas, in five of 
the nine, these facilities are inferior to what may 
be termed a fair average. In two of the nine, tho 
the state superintendents gave affirmative answers, 



The Function of Teachers College 237 

the consensus of opinion of the normal school prin- 
cipals was negative. In a word, the nine affirmative 
replies indicate individual opinions, and result from 
a limited perspective. 

To question (2). Twenty-nine replies were re- 
ceived, of which fifteen were specifically negative, 
five specifically affirmative, and nine implied a mis- 
understanding of the question. But nearly all of 
the nine, as well as the fifteen, stated definitely or 
clearly implied that such work should be done in the 
colleges and universities. 

Replies from Normal School Principals 

To question (1). Twenty-eight replies were re- 
ceived, of which twenty were negative, and eight 
affirmative. Of the eight, three were from states 
having but one normal school each, and perhaps, 
therefore, admittedly strong; two from states hav- 
ing each one school much superior to the others of 
the same state, and referring specifically to that 
school. Of the remaining three, one was from a new 
state in the Northwest, one from a Southern state, 
and one stated that only in some branches was the 
equipment sufficient. 

To question (2). Twenty replies were received, of 
which sixteen were negative, and four affirmative. 
Of the four, not one said that all should be so 
equipt. Each suggested that perhaps it would be 
well thus to extend the equipment of one school in 
a state. 

Replies from City Superintendents 

To question (1). Thirty replies were received, of 
which twenty-eight were negative, and two affirma- 



%38 On the Firing Line in Education 

tive. The two were from a state in which is to be 
found a single normal school, and that, one of the 
best. 

To question (2). Twenty-eight replies were re- 
ceived, of which twenty-six were negative, and two 
affirmative. 

To be sure, correspondence upon this point was 
not sufficiently extended to be conclusive, but yet my 
correspondents were, in the main, leaders in their 
respective lines, and therefore represent the best edu- 
cational thought and practise of the times. The 
summary speaks clearly and to the point, and to 
the same point, note, that the logic of events has 
already brought us. The work of the normal school 
should continue to be, as it has been from the be- 
ginning, devoted to preparation of teachers for the 
grades, while prospective teachers in the high schools 
should seek their preparation in the teachers col- 
leges, under whatever specific names known, where 
the professional phases of the work will be as much 
emphasized, but be different, and be differently 
handled as befitting the different character of the 
work to be done, and where they can receive the 
broader academic outlook and equipment absolutely 
essential to an adequate handling of the larger and 
more difficult situation. 

Note. — Since the appearance of the January number of 
Education, my attention has been called to the fact that in 
naming institutions giving early attention to the preparation 
of secondary teachers I omitted some that should have found 
a place in such an enumeration. It is true that several others 
might well have been mentioned. On page 286, line 5 (page 
224, line 3 of this work), I might well have added the School 
of Pedagogy of New York University, also Clark, Stanford, 
California, and Teachers College, Columbia, and again, "and 
others." And on page 289, line 18 (page 



The Function of Teachers College 239 

work), I certainly should have added the School of Pedagogy 
of New York University and Clark University, possibly others, 
for the work is progressing rapidly. But it was the movement 
I had in mind rather than the specific contributions of various 
institutions. The omissions were not born of any desire to 
withhold from any institution the credit that it deserves. 

Since this matter is again open, let me add an interesting fact 
in regard to the New York University School of Pedagogy, just 
mentioned. If I mistake not, we have here the first real 
"teachers college," that is, the first instance in which we see a 
"Department of Education," having merely equal standing 
with other departments in a university, become, thru def- 
inite action of that university's governing body, "a professional 
school of equal rank with the other professional schools of 
the University." This change was made on March 3, 1890. 
Judging by results, it has been amply justified. The institu- 
tion is doing a large and splendid work. — The Author. 



X 



CREDIT FOR QUALITY IN SECONDARY AND 
HIGHER EDUCATION 



From the "Educational Review" March, 1909, and 

the "Western Journal of Education" {now the 

"American Schoolmaster"), May, 1909 



CREDIT FOR QUALITY IN SECONDARY 
AND HIGHER EDUCATION 

IN the Educational Review for May, 1908, Mr. 
W. B. Secor had an article under the caption, 
"Credit for Quality in the Secondary School." Mr. 
Secor says, in his opening paragraph, "The present 
sj^stem of giving credit towards graduation in use 
in the secondary school, takes account mainly of 
the amount of work done. . . . The student who 
barely passes his work gets just the same amount 
of credit towards graduation as the one who passes 
high in the nineties. It is to be expected, then, that 
the student . . . will reason something like this: 
I will be graduated if I pass my work in the seven- 
ties just the same as if I pass it in the nineties. 
What is the use of wasting time and effort in secur- 
ing a high average?" He then suggests a system 
of marking which "would not only fix a minimum of 
quality, but would also recognize different degrees of 
quality by giving more credit toward graduation for 
high quality than for low," which system, he thinks, 
would also tend to "a strengthening of the intel- 
lectual life of the secondary school." Mr. Secor 
does not claim to be the originator of the idea, giv- 
ing to President Hyde of Bowdoin that doubtful 
honor. He also refers to two articles in the Educa- 
tional Review, one in the issue of April, 1905, written 

243 



244 On the Firing Line in Education 

by Professor Thomas, of Columbia University, 
speaking of the system as just introduced into that 
institution, and the other in the issue of Decem- 
ber, 1906, by Professor Kennedy, describing the 
system as then in use in the University of North 
Dakota. After these references have been cited, 
the system is discust from various points of view 
and its extension into the secondary field favored, 
tho, in his closing paragraph, Mr. Secor says, "Now 
the plan here proposed does not claim perfection. 
It may not even be a workable scheme when put to 
the test." 

Mr. Secor's article is but one of many evidences 
that the experiment now being tried in a few of 
our higher institutions of learning, of attempting 
to estimate and adequately reward quality as well 
as quantity of work done by students, is attracting 
considerable attention. It is not at all strange 
that these experiments are attracting attention, for 
the idea is taking and its justice seemingly so ap- 
parent. Because of this interest I desire to exam- 
ine some parts of Mr. Secor's article and in the 
process of that examination briefly discuss the so- 
called "Credit-for-quality" idea. I shall be mate- 
rially aided in such discussion by my experience with 
the practical workings of the system in the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota, and shall take the oppor- 
tunity of letting the educational world know how the 
system is working and how it is being regarded in 
the institution in which it has been receiving its most 
extensive and thoro trial. For while the system 
did not originate here, it was here first put into 
operation, and for years an earnest, honest, heroic 
effort has been put forth in its behalf. I might say, 



Credit for Quality 245 

parenthetically, that the details of the system Mr. 
Secor suggests are almost identically the ones that 
have been in use in this institution. They were 
found to be faulty, however, and have been mate- 
rially changed. 

I have read and re-read Mr. Secor's article with 
both interest and apprehension: with interest, be- 
cause the "Credit-for-quality" idea has been engag- 
ing my thoughtful attention on both its practical 
and its theoretical sides for a considerable time; 
with apprehension, since the article seems to rec- 
ommend the system for use in our secondary schools. 
I am sorry the recommendation has been made for 
the conclusions I have reached from my double study 
are very different from those being held by Mr. 
Secor. I seriously question the wisdom of extending 
the system at all, even when dealing with students 
of college rank, much more seriously, then, when ap- 
plied to those of the secondary school who are four 
years younger, much less mature, and therefore less 
able to profit by the meritorious features and at 
the same time withstand the weakening influences 
attendant upon the system. Indeed, I think its 
adoption in the secondary schools would be nothing 
short of a calamity. Another reason why I feel 
impelled to speak is that reference is made in Mr. 
Secor's article to the working of the system in the 
institution with which I am connected as "highly 
satisfactory." In justice to the system itself and 
certainly in view of its suggested extension, that 
impression should not be allowed to go forth with- 
out modification or correction. I shall attempt, 
therefore, in this discussion, to do three things, 
tho I shall not try to separate the three spatially: 



246 On the Firing Line in Education 

(1) to discuss this marking system on its merits ; (£) 
to report to the educational world our findings after 
an experience with it of five years, and (3) to urge 
against its extension into the secondary field. 

Let me say, at the outset, that I have been con- 
nected with the University of North Dakota for 
three years — -i:he last three of the five during which 
the system has been in use. I have had all the time 
from one hundred to one hundred twenty-five stu- 
dents. The grading has had to be done three times 
a year, since our school year, up to the present 
time, has been separated into three terms. Let me 
also make plain the fact that in all I say I speak 
upon my own responsibility, not for the institution 
nor for its faculty, tho it is true that nearly, if not 
quite, half the faculty hold practically the same 
views regarding the system. 

It is true, as Mr. Secor says, that "the present 
system of giving credit towards graduation used in 
our secondary schools takes account mainly of the 
amount of work done." It passes upon quality, as 
he says, only "when it fixes a passing mark." It 
may also be true, as he takes for granted, that it 
would be desirable to give credit towards graduation 
for quality as well as for quantity, but of this I 
am very much in doubt, especially in dealing with 
secondary students. It does not sufficiently take 
into consideration the value of content, and that, it 
seems to me, is a factor that should not be disre- 
garded. I think I value as highly as most men 
the discipline, or mental power, gained by close ap- 
plication; likewise, the habit of thoroness gained 
thru doing work well ; but yet, in addition to those 
acquisitions, I confess that I also place high value 



Credit for Quality 247 

upon knowledge as a possession. In other words, I 
want the student, both high school and college, to 
know something. 

I will gladly admit, however, that it is very de- 
sirable to secure from the student quality as well 
as quantity. That, I am inclined to think, is the 
main thing that Mr. Secor is really after. He thinks 
the best way, or, at any rate, a very good way, to 
get it is thru the device of giving extra credit toward 
graduation for the higher grades of work. My ex- 
perience with the system does not lead me to that 
conclusion. Interest in the subject matter itself 
is always essential to the doing of a high quality 
of work. And such interest in the subject matter 
of school studies is scarcely secured by anything 
so artificial as rewards smacking of the market. 
So far as it can not be secured directly, and resort 
must be made to artificial incentives to secure it, 
I think that incentives can be found much more in 
keeping with the general spirit and purpose of edu- 
cation than the constant appeal to the commercial 
value of the grades being obtained. The ordinary 
monthly report card sent to the home, on which 
the quality of work being done in the various sub- 
jects is indicated by "excellent," "good," "poor," 
etc., and even by the too common "per cent," is 
artificial stimulus enough. Every teacher knows 
what an incentive the report card can be made. To 
be sure, teachers differ greatly in their ability to use 
this card skilfully, but so used it can exert great 
power. Not long ago I discust this "Credit-for- 
quality" matter with a class of about thirty uni- 
versity students, mostly freshmen, and, somewhat 
to my surprise, I discovered that with the major- 



248 On the Firing Line in Education 

ity of them the chief reason for desiring the "A" 
and "B" (our marks for extra credit toward gradu- 
ation) was not that they bore the extra credit, but 
that the descriptive terms "excellent" and "good" 
secure extra appreciation from the home when term 
standings are reported. This might not be true 
of any large percentage of university students, cer- 
tainly would not be of the upper classes. Added 
years have made them shrewder. Under the influence 
of our system they have become keener to appreciate 
a "bargain." But it certainly would be true of a 
very large percentage of secondary students. 

Considerable experience in the secondary schools 
leads me to doubt very much that the typical high 
school student reasons as Mr. Secor suggests in his 
first paragraph. Some do, of course, and so do 
some university students, but not the great body of 
either. Barring a small percentage, students as they 
run, in both high school and college, are an earnest 
lot of young people. They are in these institutions 
for a purpose. They are seeking, so far as their 
vision extends, well-developed manhood and woman- 
hood. Their chief desire is not to slide thru. The 
two immediate ends normally in view are conscious- 
ness of progressive growth and appreciation from 
parent and teacher. How eager the majority are 
for this appreciation is well known to all. All 
the stimulus needed, in addition to what the sub- 
jects and the student's own desire furnish, the re- 
sourceful teacher has at hand wrapt up in his own 
personality. If any other stimulus is needed it can 
be given by a grading of diplomas as is now being 
done in many high schools and colleges. I hold 
that to add to the marks now in common use what 



Credit for Quality 249 

may be called a monetary fringe is both unneces- 
sary and really subversive of the true ends of the 
school work. As teachers we should seek to elevate 
ideals, not to lower them; to furnish right motives, 
not wrong ones ; to place before the developing youth 
high incentives, not low ones. 

Mr. Secor says, "the proposed plan is superior 
to the present system in that it gives a natural and 
not an artificial incentive to high scholarship." By 
what process of reasoning he reaches the conclusion 
that mere "marks and honors" are more "unnatu- 
ral" and "artificial" than the same marks and hon- 
ors with a commercial tag appended, I fail to see. 
The truth of the matter is, both are artificial. As 
incentives, both are low, but it stands to reason that 
the latter is much lower than the former. The 
best friends of the system here, in the University 
of North Dakota, admit that, as an incentive, it 
is both artificial and low. Mr. Secor goes on to say, 
"the system" (that is, the "Credit-for-quality") 
"puts a premium on thorough-going scholarship by 
enabling the student to come up for graduation with- 
out being forced to study so many subjects that 
he is not able to do any of them well." If our sec- 
ondary school courses are so arranged as to force 
the student "to study so many subjects that he is 
not able to do any of them well," then something 
is radically wrong with the courses of study. But 
no evil can be remedied by introducing a greater. 
As a matter of fact, the application of the system 
does not lead to "thorough-going scholarship," at 
least not in the University of North Dakota where, 
for five years, an honest and faithful effort has been 
made to secure that result. In all our discussions 



250 On the Firing Line in Education 

I have never heard one of its friends make that 
claim for it, altho the charge has been repeatedly 
made that it is destructive of scholarship. The 
writer goes on to say, "he" (the student) "may sub- 
stitute depth for breadth, if he so desires, and is 
encouraged to do so." Shall we, in the secondary 
schools, encourage depth? Yes, to be sure, relative 
depth, but not too much of it, and not then at the 
expense of breadth. For is not the high school 
student in that stage of his development when he 
responds to the sense of breadth rather than that 
of depth? We could not make of him a student of 
research if we should try. Let us not try. 

In the last paragraph of the article referred to we 
find a hint of a lack of thoro conviction on the part 
of the writer himself. "It may not even be a work- 
able scheme when put to the test," he says. Let me 
say that here, after five years' use, it is not proving 
to be satisfactorily "workable" even with students 
of college grade, and by a recent faculty action it has 
been entirely eliminated from our preparatory de- 
partment. 

This lack of conviction on the part of Mr. Secor 
calls to mind an interesting bit of history connected 
with the movement. As said before, it did not origi- 
nate in the University of North Dakota. Dr. Wil- 
liam DeWitt Hyde, President of Bowdoin College, is 
responsible for the suggestion. He sketched the plan 
in an Outlook article of August 2nd, 1902, but evi- 
dently lacking the courage of his conviction did not 
introduce it into his own institution, preferring, 
seemingly, that the experiment be made elsewhere. 
This has been, from the start, very suggestive to me. 
I have some admiration for President Hyde's shrewd- 



Credit for Quality 251 

ness. The University of North Dakota fell into the 
trap thus skilfully set. And it is easier to fall into 
a trap than to get out of it. As a matter of fact, 
the system is more on trial now, after five years' use, 
than ever before. Other institutions would do well 
to await further developments. 

In attempting to analyze the situation at the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota, let me again refer to Mr. 
Secor's article. He says, "The plan, with some 
modifications, is at present being used in the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota and in Columbia University 
with results that are reported to be highly satis- 
factory." To substantiate his statement he refers, 
in a foot-note, to the articles in the Educational 
Review from which he got his information. Now, the 
conclusion that Mr. Secor reaches from reading these 
articles is hardly warranted by the articles them- 
selves. I fear he read too much between the lines. 
Let us see: Professor Thomas wrote of the Colum- 
bia system more than three years ago, and only a 
couple of months after its adoption; nor does he 
say anything as to its success, — in fact, he could 
not, for there was nothing to say. He merely ex- 
plained the new system and gave voice to his expec- 
tations. The Columbia system may be proving 
"highly satisfactory," but surely that article does 
not say that it is. And when the other article is 
analyzed, the case is found to be somewhat similar. 
Professor Kennedy wrote on the system in the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota nearly two years ago, fully 
two academic years, for the article appeared in De- 
cember, 1906, before the close of the first term of 
the year 1906-'07. Now two years in the life of an 
experiment of this kind is a long time. And Pro- 



252 On the Firing Line in Education 

fessor Kennedy in writing his article, did not put 
the case as strongly as does Mr. Secor from reading 
it. All that he said of its successful working was: 
"We . . . thus far can truthfully say it is work- 
ing itself out in desirable results — in more and bet- 
ter work than under the old plan." From these data, 
given when they were, Mr. Secor is certainly not 
justified in saying that "the plan ... is at pres- 
ent being used in the University of North Dakota 
with results that are reported to be highly satis- 
factory." 

Professor Kennedy's statement was his individual 
judgment at the time he wrote his article. A con- 
siderable number of his co-laborers would not then 
have agreed with him. He probably would not write 
even as strongly as that to-day. If he should, a 
still larger number would disagree. He might write 
as strongly of his own belief in the theoretical sound- 
ness of the system, but that is quite another mat- 
ter. As a matter of fact, during the last two 
years the weaknesses of the system have become so 
much more apparent that many members of the fac- 
ulty then favorable, or at least hopeful, have at last 
come to despair of ever being able to eliminate the 
objectionable features and strengthen the weak 
points sufficiently to warrant its retention. 

Professor Kennedy's article goes into detail as to 
the adoption of the plan, and clearly states its 
various changes up to the date of his writing. 
In our efforts, since then, to "improve" and 
"strengthen" it, various other changes have been 
made so that, as a matter of fact, one who knew it 
in its early history only would hardly recognise it 
as planned for use next year (quite different in de- 



Credit for Quality 253 

tail from that now in use) save in the fundamental 
principle. That remains the same; the institution 
desires to secure a better quality of work from its 
students; it also desires to enable the student of 
exceptional ability or unusual industry to cut short 
his period of undergraduate study. To accomplish 
these ends it continues to use its so-called "Credit- 
for-quality" system of marking. This is done, altho 
a large and steadily increasing number of the fac- 
ulty members feel that it does not do the first and 
that it overdoes the second. 

As to these ends : I think that no one on the fac- 
ulty really feels that, on the whole, we are getting 
a better grade of work thar^ should reasonably be 
expected without the system; or, to put it in an- 
other way, no one would be bold enough to say that 
our students are doing better work than the students 
of similar institutions that do not use the system. 
On the other hand, it is true that some who have 
come among us since the adoption of the system 
give the comparison the less favorable turn. 

Thru the operation of the system many can and 
do shorten their course; too many, I feel. Too 
many who have neither "exceptional ability" nor 
"unusual industry," unless it be ability "to work the 
Prof." and industry in that laudable enterprise. 
The course that normally takes four full years can 
be shortened from a portion of a term to a full 
year. Prior to June, 1908, the "time saved" could 
reach to a full year and a half. True, no one had 
actually completed a course in two and a half years, 
but one young lady's time was only slightly in ex- 
cess of that and the excess was fully overbalanced by 
the time she gave to outside work — to library assist- 



254 On the Firing Line in Education 

ance for remuneration, and to journalism. And 
that gait was being struck by others. It only re- 
mained to be seen how long the wind would hold out. 
It was clearly possible. But the faculty became 
alarmed. Clearly recognizing the above stated pos- 
sibility and being wholly unwilling thus to lower 
its high standard, it passed a resolution that arbi- 
trarily limits the number of credits a student may 
receive in a given time to such an extent as to pre- 
vent graduation in less than three years. But 
several have gained, and others are gaining, suffi- 
cient surplus to enable them to complete their work 
in three years. From fifteen to twenty per cent, 
it is estimated, are enabled to shorten their course 
to that extent. Now some of these are thoroly good 
students, and, assuming that the system is sound in 
principle, well deserve to profit thereby. But others 
are just ordinarily good students, scarcely above 
the rank and file. In addition to those who com- 
plete their work in three years, some thirty or forty 
per cent more shorten it by lesser amounts, ranging 
all the way down to an inappreciable period. 

But aside from the system's failure in reaching 
one of its ends and its too great success in reaching 
the other, it has developed numerous and unfortu- 
nate evils that many regard as exceedingly seri- 
ous, and revealed weaknesses that seem well nigh 
impossible to eliminate. Space allows scarcely more 
than an enumeration of these, but a mere enumera- 
tion is better than to deal wholly in general terms. 
(1) In the first place, I should say that the "Credit- 
for-quality" system of marking as used by us places 
before the students unworthy ideals. Students of 
university rank can be led to seek knowledge for 



Credit for Quality 255 

knowledge's sake, truth for truth's sake. They can 
be taught to see farther ahead than the close of the 
term, and something more precious than an extra 
three-tenths of a credit. But this thought has al- 
ready been sufficiently treated earlier in the article. 
(2) It leads to faulty methods of study and unsatis- 
factory final results. In the preparation of the 
lessons, a good recitation, rather than thoro under- 
standing of the subject matter, is too apt to be the 
objective point. Many good students have told me 
that they find it difficult to resist the tendency to 
subordinate understanding to memory. (3) It may 
lead, often does, to unwise election of courses. Some 
teachers mark higher than others. Under the in- 
fluence of our system students are very quick to 
learn these individual characteristics, and those who 
have developed the "itching palm" know how to profit 
by that knowledge. (4) It places students who 
receive extra credit for quality at a disadvantage 
in seeking to enter other institutions of learning. 
The credits thus gained will not be recognized. This 
would operate only in making the transfer during 
the undergraduate period, but it does there.* (5) 

* Experience has shown that I was in error in the state- 
ment of this sentence. It has been found to operate to the 
disadvantage of our students entering other institutions in 
graduate as well as undergraduate departments. Graduate 
schools have become very particular, some of them not being 
satisfied without passing in review well nigh the entire former 
school life of an applicant, apparently to assure themselves 
that no short-cuts have been made. This fact is an interesting 
confirmation of the position of this article relative to the im- 
portance of content — when it pleads for quantity, as well as 
quality. 

This entire matter is made clear by referring to one instance. 
Others could be cited. One of our graduates, Miss Ethel J. 
May, a very strong student, "profited" by the so-called "credit- 



256 On the Firing Line in Education 

It is demoralizing to both students and teachers. 
I refer to the inevitable outcome of such a system; 
some students (sometimes few and sometimes many) 
develop considerable skill in "working the Prof." 
Teachers offering elective courses are constantly 
under .jgreat temptation and students are shrewd 
enough to know it. And again, under the same 
count: it is freely claimed by both teachers and 
students that the cheating in examinations, of which 
we doubtless have our share (some claim much more 
than our share, tho personally I doubt it), is very 
greatly increased if not largely caused by our sys- 
tem of marking. In hopes of remedying this some 

for-quality" system to such an extent that she shortened her 
undergraduate period of study by an entire year, receiving 
her degree with honor. Then she taught for a few years with 
signal success, later returning for graduate work. For her 
Master's degree she spent an entire year in study, since the 
system did not operate in the graduate department. Again she 
taught with success, later entering the University of Illinois 
as an applicant for the doctorate. Here it was that her 
troubles began, and all because she had thus "profited" way 
back in her undergraduate days. She was told that the year 
"saved" would now have to be made up — that the period of 
study for her doctorate would have to be at least three years, 
and this in spite of the fact that she held the degree of 
Master of Arts from a state university of the first class, and 
was planning to continue along the same lines of work. After 
considerable discussion and institutional negotiation, this much 
of a concession was made: "If your work proves to be excel- 
lent, your shortage will be disregarded." So she went to 
work with that incubus, or stimulus — whichever you wish to 
regard it — over her. Neither she nor her committee knew how 
to plan her work, not knowing whether it was to be for two 
years or for three. And not until the very close of her year's 
work was her status determined — full credit then being granted 
for her former degrees. Miss May's sane comment now is, 
"I would not advise any one to try to shorten the regular 
four-year undergraduate period of study." 

(Author 1918) 



Credit for Quality 257 

of the students are now urging the adoption of the 
"honor system" of conducting examinations. (6) 
It is impossible to create uniform standards corre- 
sponding to our various grades. There are as many 
standards for each grade as there are instructors. 
A grade of work for which one instructor would give 
an "A" (1.3), another would give a "B" (1.2) and 
still another a "C" (1.0). Standards can not be 
fixt. To show how greatly they differ, in marking 
the work for the first term of this year one instructor 
gave only seven per cent of his students extra credit, 
while another thus rewarded more than seventy per 
cent of his. This range, however, is abnormal. But 
a range of twenty-five per cent to sixty-five per cent 
is not, even tho the two instructors have approxi- 
mately the same students and do approximately the 
same grade of work. Other evils and weaknesses 
might be mentioned, but these are sufficient to show 
the tendency. 

On the other hand, what strong points can be 
urged as an offset? The only ones I have ever heard 
offered are: (1) it is an incentive, and (2) it does 
enable students to shorten the period of undergradu- 
ate work. I grant them both, but I hold that the 
incentive is a low one — much lower than we need 
to use — and that the shortening of the course is far 
from being an unmixt blessing. 

Let me again refer to the matter of content, upon 
our value of which, to quite an extent, our estimate 
of the merit of the "Credit-for-quality" system must 
rest. The young people in our colleges and univer- 
sities, in planning for lives of usefulness and suc- 
cess, place themselves in our hands for direction 
and guidance. Knowing that we are older, wiser, 



258 On the Firing Line in Education 

more learned, and more experienced than they, they 
ask our advice and, in the main, follow it. To the 
incentives we use in dealing with them, they respond ; 
the motives we supply urge them on; the standards 
of value we erect for them, they use; and the ideals 
we place before them, they try to reach. All this 
places large responsibilities upon us. Are we wise 
in telling from fifteen to twenty per cent of these 
young people that three years is all the time that 
it is wise for them to spend in college work? They 
will all remain the full four years unless we plan 
differently for them. To be sure, there is no magic 
in the number four as numbering the years of one's 
college course, nor in three, nor in two, nor in any 
other number. But would not any normal student 
who spends four years in the college atmosphere, 
mingling with college people, both students and 
teachers, doing college work, drinking from the pure 
fountains of literature, of history, of philosophy, of 
science, of art, et cetera, be broader in range and 
more fully equipt for the varied and complicated 
duties of life and for life's enjoyment, than he would 
be* with only three years thus spent ? And is not 
the fourth year by far the best of the four? Why 
shall you and I discourage him from doing that 
which we know to be well for him and which he is 
willing to do? Why deny him the rare fruitage of 
that fourth year? Why say to him when he is just 
ready to enter into the enjoyments of his student 
life, "you would better go ?" After all, is it not this 
very three-year student with his finer ability, his 
keener insight, and his greater industry who can most 
greatly profit by the extra year? Shall we not 
rather encourage him to stay longer and delve deeper 



Credit for Quality 259 

and reach to the very heart of things? Whether 
looked at from the standpoint of the student's own 
advantage, or from that of the world at large, which 
is to profit by his equipment, is it not really the 
four-year or even the five-year student who would 
better be excused at the end of the third year? In- 
stead of being in a hurry to send our choice stu- 
dents away, let us get them to do their high quality 
of work just the same, but to do it during four 
years instead of three. They are the very ones who 
will most readily respond to such appeals and they 
will so respond unless we put other notions into their 
heads. It is sometimes urged, in justification of 
the "Credit-for-quality" idea, that one student in 
three years can accomplish more, in gaining both 
knowledge and mental power, than another in four. 
There is no doubt about it. Some can do more in 
two years than others in four; some in one, and 
some with no college work can easily outstrip others 
with the best advantages. Shall we say to such an 
one, "you do not need to go to college — it would be 
time wasted"? By no means. Above all others we 
want him, because he can most largely profit by 
what he gets, and we shall reap the reward later on. 
But supposing one student at the close of his third 
college year is better able to make his way in the 
world than another at the end of his fourth year, 
that is not the question at all. The function of the 
college is not to bring students to a level, but to 
develop each one to the utmost. Each should be 
considered separately and the question asked, "the 
longer or the shorter term — which will do the more 
for him?" 

Some other developments here can hardly fail to 



260 On the Firing Line in Education 

be of interest. Originally planned to operate in our 
entire institution, exclusive of the College of Law 
into which it was not allowed to enter, this system 
has gradually been eliminated from all the colleges 
save the College of Liberal Arts and Teachers Col- 
lege. True, in these colleges of exclusion the matter 
of content figures more prominently than in the 
others — the curricula are more fixt — but that is far 
from being the only reason for the exclusion. And 
even more suggestive as touching the secondary 
school extension recommended by the article under 
discussion, is our recent action excluding the sys- 
tem from our preparatory department, now being 
transformed into a model high school for Teachers 
College. This elimination, likewise, was in part due 
to the fixt number of courses demanded of all sec- 
ondary schools, but yet, not largely so. When this 
matter came up for decision it needed no emphasis 
upon that point to carry the recommendation. It 
would have carried without those conditions. The 
strongest advocates of the system did not, by a sin- 
gle word, urge its retention in the Model High 
School. All felt, seemingly, that it was not well 
suited to students of that grade. 

Note. — The reason for repeating this article here is largely 
historical, tho interest in the matter discust occasionally crops 
out even yet. It will be of interest to some who have not 
otherwise heard of it to learn that the University of North 
Dakota long since discarded the system. It was voted out 
completely early in the year 1910. And thus was realized 
Professor Kennedy's apprehension exprest in his Educational 
Review discussion of 1906: "We have, I grant, had our doubts 
and fears, knowing well that many a promising theory lies 
high and dry on the shoals of the past." 



INDEX 



Academies, 221 

Adolescent, 46-49, 54-56, 67, 

68, 74, 81, 85, 212, 231 
Adults, 211, 212, 213 
Aliens, education of, 25 
Alien people, 21 
Appleton's Cyclopedia, 165 
Arithmetic, 154 
Ayers, 120 

Barnard, Henry, 220 

Bay State, Old, 64 

Binet, 57 

Boards of Education, 45, 156, 

195 
Bowdoin College, 243, 250 
Burbank, Luther, 166 
Burns, Robert, 136, 138 
Bureau of Education, 19 
Butler, Nicholas Murray, 96, 
97, 103 

California, 233, 234 

Carter, 218 

Child, the, 43, 44, 45, 68, 116, 

117, 121, 140, 141, 147, 

151 154 195 
Child Study, 43, 45, 49, 54, 

58, 85 
Child-Welfare, 49 
Church, 133, 141-159 
Civil War, 107, 222 
College, 69-82, 104, 110, 165, 

167, 217-237 
Law, 260 
Liberal Arts, 84, 99, 260 



College, Preparation for, 71, 

73 
Teachers, 45, 219-238 
Commissioner of Education, 

27 
Community Service, 73 
Connecticut, 31, 220 
County Training School, 219 
"Credit-for-Quality" System, 

243-260 
Cronin, Dr., 125 

Dante, 144, 145 

Democracy, 29, 31-34, 41, 65, 

171, 172, 173, 180 
Department of Education, 20 
Dewey, John, 42, 43 
Diaz, President, 31 
Dooley, Mr., 95 
Dwight, Edmund, 31, 218 

Education 

Boards of, 45, 84, 156, 195 
Bureau of, 19 
Department of, 108, 109, 

218, 219, 223 
Elementary, 65, 75 
History of, 81, 82, 83, 84, 

227 228 
Motive in, 38 
Philosophy of, 81, 84 
Physical, 50, 66, 155, 203 
Principles of, 82, 83, 224 
Professional, 81 
School of in North Dakota, 

82-85 



261 



262 



Index 



Education 

School of, 83-85, 108-111, 

218 
Secondary, 75, 84, 85, 164 
Universal, 24 
Educational mesurements, 56 
Educational psychologist, 56, 

58, 59 
Educational Review, 243, 251, 

260 
Educational Survey, 51, 52,59 
Elementary School, 65, 66, 67, 

73, 74, 105, 106, 107, 108, 

230, 231 
England, 30, 173 
Entrance requirements, 44, 

48, 76, 80 
Ernest, Duke, 32 
Euthydemus, 98 
Eye, 115-118, 120, 121, 129 

Federal Government, 28 
Folk, Joseph W., 173, 174 
Foster, President, 95, 102, 105 
France, 32, 229 
Frederick the Great, 30, 32 
Frederick William I, 30 
Froebel, 39 

Garfield, ex-President, 90 
Georgia, 24 
Germans, 30, 31 
Germany, 32, 120, 229 
Gladstone, William Ewart, 

173, 174 
Gotha, 32 

Government, the, 19 
Grand Forks, North Dakota, 

186-199 
Greek, 99, 100 
Gulick, 120 

Harris, Dr. William T., 231 
Harvard College, 65, 219, 224 
Heeter, S. L., 124, 125 
Herbart, 39 



High Schools, 44-47, 53, 55, 

63-86, 107, 108, 220, 223, 

233, 234, 247, 248 
High School Teacher, 46-49, 

80-85, 178, 222, 223, 228, 

233-238 
Hill, James J., 166 
History, 154, 155 
History of Education, 81, 82, 

83, 84, 224 
Home, 26, 66, 133-159 
Homer, 99, 100 
Hyde, President, 243, 250 

Illiteracy, 20-24 
Individualism, Theory of, 39, 

43 
Iowa, Legislature of, 49 

Jefferson City, 120, 123 
Johnson, Hiram W., 173 
Jordan, David Starr, 72, 177 

Kennedy, Professor, 244, 251, 

252, 260 

Law, School of, 108, 110 

Leadership, 75-81, 163-181 

Lecture method, 99-103 

Lincoln, 166 

Literature, 232, 234, 258 

Lloyd-George, David, 166 

Locke, 203 

Longfellow, 207 

Los Angeles, 123 

Louises, the, of France, 32 

McAdoo, Mr., 218, 220 
Mann, Horace, 218, 220 
Massachusetts, 24, 25, 31, 65, 

107, 220 
Medical Inspection, 22, 27, 

193, 194 
Medicine, School of, 108, 110 
Methods of Teaching, 81, 82, 

83, 84, 85 



Index 



263 



Military campaign, 37 
Military training, 15 
Ministry, gospel, 179 
Minneapolis Journal, 110 
Minnesota, 52 
Missouri, 121, 173 



Model High School, 84, 85, Plato, 44 



Physical Betterment, 203,204 

Defects, 26 

Disability, 22, 23 

Education, 50 

Training, 155, 203 
Physiology, 196 



224, 260 

Navy Department, 19 
New England, 19 
New Jersey, 25, 220 

New York, 25, 220, 221 



Plattsburgh, 18 

Playgrounds, 209, 212 

Practise Teaching, 84, 85 

Press, 190, 198 

Prussia, 30 

Psychologist, educational, 56 



New York City, 123, 125, 173 Psychology, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 



Noblesse Oblige, 162-181 
Normal schools, 45, 4f 
106, 107, 108, 225, 
231 
County, 225, 230 
State, 31, 217-238 
North Dakota, 52, 233 
Nurse, school, 50 



Oculist, 117, 118 
Odyssey, The, 99 
Officers Training 

117 
Optician, 117, 118 
Outlook, The, 250 



Schools, 



Page, David, 218, 220 
Parents, 135, 152, 158, 189 
Parker, Colonel, 39 
Parks, 208, 209, 210, 212 
Parliament, 30 
Payne, Dr. W. H., 223, 232 
Pedagogy, 82, 224 
Pedagogical Department, 219, 

224 
Pennsylvania, 25 
Pershing, General, 15 
Pestalozzi, 39, 40, 41, 43 
Philadelphia, 123 
Philosophy 

Doctors of, 234 

History of, 102 



147, 179, 189, 196 
Public, parsimonious, 14 
Public Schools, 41, 185-199, 

221, 227 

Red Cross, 15 
Reed College, 95 
Retardation, 124, 193 
Risley, Dr., 123 
Rousseau, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43 

S. A. T. C, 20 

School, 26, 39, 40, 41, 44, 55, 
56, 57, 133, 150-159, 184- 
199 

Common, 220, 221 

County Training, 219 

of Education, 83, 84, 85, 
108-111, 218 

of Education in North Da- 
kota, 82-85 

Elementary, 54, 65, 66, 67, 
73, 74, 105, 106, 107, 108, 
164, 222, 230, 231 

House, little red, 191, 192 

Nurse, 50 

Physician, 58, 193, 194 
School 

Secondary, 63-84, 105, 106, 
109, 228, 230, 231, 243- 
260 
Secor, Mr. W. B., 243-260 



264 



Index 



Sheldon, 218 

Social Betterment, 38, 43, 58 

Society, 44 

Socrates, 98 

Spencer, Herbert, 42 

Sports, Winter, 203-213 

State, Education and the, 63- 

86 
Storm and Stress Period, 47 
State University, 75 
St. Paul, Schools of, 124, 127 
Strathcona, Lord, 166 
Superintendent of Schools, 

193-199 
Survey, Educational, 51, 52 

Teaching, Methods, 81, 82, 83, 

84, 85 
Teachers 

Elementary, 82, 106 

High School, 46-49, 80-85, 
222-238 

University, 91-105 
Terman, Professor, 57 
Theater, 211 
Thomas, Calvin, 244, 251 

United States, 15, 17, 28 
University, 63, 64, 165, 166, 
174, 179, 181, 221, 224, 

227, 228, 237 
and the teacher, 89-111 
Chicago, 224, 225, 228 



University, Columbia, 103, 
219, 225, 228, 244, 251 

Cornell, 224 

Harvard, 65, 219, 224 

Illinois, 224 

Iowa, 52 

Leland Stanford, 57 

Manitoba, 89 

Michigan, 80, 95, 108, 223, 
224, 227 

Minnesota, 109, 219 

Missouri, 109, 219, 225, 228 

Nevada, 52 

New York, 108, 238, 239 

North Dakota, 49, 78, 82-86, 
108, 109, 219, 225, 243-260 

Ohio, 224 

State, 75-86, 105-111, 169 

Warsaw, 167 

Wisconsin, 52, 109 

Van Home, Sir William, 166 
Vocational Guidance, 53-56 

Wallin, Dr., 122 

War Department, 19 

War, Education and the, 13- 

34 
Wenley, Professor, 95 
Whitman, Charles S., 173, 174 
Who's Who in America, 164 
Wilson, President, 15, 101 
Woman's Question, 137 



